What will happen to Ontario’s new employment legislation? — Benefits Canada

Allan Wells

Oct 12, 2018

Osler partner Allan Wells says that he would be “surprised” if the Ontario government scrapped Bill 148 (the Bill) entirely, according to an article in Benefits Canada. In his article, author Ryan Murphy discusses how Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced his government planned to terminate the Bill — which involves several changes to the Employment Standards Act — and what this means for the employment landscape. These changes, according to the article, included a minimum wage raise; personal emergency leave of 10 days (the first two of which are paid), among other things. Allan, a partner in Osler’s Employment & Labour Group, says he thinks that the Ontario government will retain some of the legislation.

“I have no idea how much or how little they’re going to retain, but I’d be surprised if they scrapped it all,” Alan tells Benefits Canada.

Allan says that it’s not unprecedented for a government to announce such a move, and says that he thinks the government will target a few specific provisions.

“When he talks about jobs disappearing, what I’ve heard reported in the media is part-time jobs . . . the change to the part-time law was you have to pay them the same hourly rate as the full time. If that’s what he has on his mind, I assume he’s going to delete that requirement whereby employees all have to be paid at the same hourly rate regardless of their status,” Alan tells Benefits Canada.

For more information, read author Ryan Murphy’s article “What will happen to Ontario’s new employment legislation?” in Benefits Canada on October 12, 2018.