Deductions from Earnings
- Employers may deduct from employees' pay overpayments and
vacation pay provided to employees in advance of being entitled to
it without written authorization from the employees
- Employers cannot, however, make such deductions if more than
six months have passed since the overpayment
- Employers must still provide written notice to employees prior
to making the deduction, but authorization from the employees is no
longer required
Averaging Agreements
- Employers can impose an averaging agreement for hours of work
as opposed to obtaining employee agreement, as long as the group of
affected employees are not bound by a collective agreement
- Employers must give at least two weeks' written notice
of a requirement to work an averaging arrangement, unless otherwise
agreed
- Bargaining agents may agree to an averaging arrangement as part
of a collective agreement
- If there is no collective agreement in place, averaging
arrangements must be in writing
- The effective period of averaging arrangements can last from 12
weeks to 52 weeks
- Employers must provide a schedule that sets out the daily and
weekly hours of work under the agreement, subject to amendment by
the employer in accordance with the averaging agreement
Rest Periods
- Employers may change employee shifts without providing 24
hours' written notice and eight hours of rest between shifts if
different notice or hours of rest provisions are agreed to under a
collective agreement
- Employees who work a shift of more than 10 hours are entitled
to a second rest period of at least 30 minutes, which may be paid
or unpaid
- The timing of an employee's second rest period is in the
sole discretion of the employer, subject to any agreement reached
with the employee
Daily Wages
- Daily wages for general holidays are now calculated by
averaging the employee's wages by either the four week period
before the general holiday, or the four week pay period before the
general holiday, at the employer's discretion
Vacation Entitlement
- Periods of leave are explicitly included when calculating an
employee's years of employment for the purpose of their
entitlement to vacation time
Terminations and Lay Offs
- Employers no longer need to provide notice of termination under
section 137, which provided for varying periods of notice depending
on the number of impacted employees in a group termination
- Timing requirements concerning temporary layoff notices are
removed
- The layoff period is increased permanently to 90 days
within a 120 day period
- This increase does not impact the 180 day lay-off period
instituted in the context of COVID-19, which remains in force
- Following a termination, employers may pay employees their
final pay 10 consecutive days after the end of the pay period in
which they were terminated, or 31 consecutive days after the last
day of employment, rather than within three days of the
employee's termination
Group Termination
- The notice period required for a group termination of over 50
people is reduced to four weeks
The majority of the proposed changes to the Employment
Standards Code will come into force on November 1, 2020, with
limited sections taking effect on August 15, 2020.
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Powers of the Board and Chairs
- Allow a Chair or vice-chair to sit alone to decide certain
issues such as investigations or supervising votes by secret
ballot, or in the event it is deemed necessary by the Chair
- Permit the Labour Relations Board ("Board") to order
another representation vote, only certify a trade union as a
bargaining agent if no other remedy or remedies would suffice, and
conversely refuse to certify a trade union if the Board believes
other remedies could be sufficient
- The Board may dismiss a complaint regarding fair representation
where the Board determines a fair and reasonable settlement offer
was made
Reverse Onus Rules
- Employers only bear the reverse onus of proof in instances of
dismissal or discharge
- New reverse onus for unions in cases where there is evidence of
intimidation or coercion, or where the provisions regarding
opting-in of union dues are breached
Union Dues
- Introduce requirement for union members to opt in to having a
portion of dues go to political or other activities
- Require unions to prepare financial statements that detail the
trade union's affairs to each member
- Allow the Board to stop the collection of union dues during
illegal strikes, and order an employer to pay union dues during
illegal lockouts
- Failure to pay these dues during an illegal lockout may be
collected from the employer by way of a civil action
Certification
- Extend the timeline for the Board making its final decision to
grant certification to six months after the date of
application, with the potential for extensions of this timeline by
the Chair – a significant extension from the previous limit
of 20 working days
- Trade unions may apply for certification in more than one trade
jurisdiction
Strikes and Lockouts
- Introduce restrictions on strikes and lockouts until a mediator
is appointed and the cooling-off period has expired
- Institute new limits on secondary-site picketing, eliminating
unions' abilities to picket at secondary sites unless permitted
to do so by the Board
- The Board is empowered to either permit secondary site
picketing, determine which locations may be picketed at, and make
other restrictions in regards to how picketing is carried out
- Picketers may not block or delay someone from crossing a picket
line
Arbitrations
- Terminate the binding arbitration process for post-secondary
institutions, despite such process being agreed to in collective
agreement
- This termination includes ongoing arbitrations, and voids any
awards issued
- Allow the Board to order that non-post-secondary disputes be
resolved through arbitration, and no longer consider whether unfair
labour practices occurred in the consideration of this choice
- Instead, the Board's decision to order arbitration will
focus on a party's refusal to bargain collectively, recognize
the authority of the other party, and failure to make reasonable
effort to conclude a collective agreement
- Remove arbitral discretion to provide timeline extensions in
the grievance or arbitration processes
- Allow the Board to set aside awards of arbitrators, remit a
matter back to the arbitrator or a different arbitrator, and stay
proceedings before an arbitrator
- Eliminate legislative reasonableness as the standard of review,
and re-institute standard appeal provisions
- Institute compulsory arbitration for collective agreements
relating to major construction projects
The vast majority of these amendments to the Labour
Relations Code come into force on Proclamation.
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