Your Guide to The Employment Standards Act
This guide is a practical source of info about key sections of the ESA. It is for your info and assistance only. It is not a legal document. If you require details or exact language, please refer to the ESA itself and its regulations.
This guide should not be used as or considered legal guidance. You may have greater rights under an employment agreement, cumulative agreement, the typical law or other legislation. If you’re not sure about anything in this guide, please talk to an attorney.
Topics covered by the ESA?
These consist of:
benefit plans
bereavement leave
child death leave
crime-related child disappearance leave
critical illness leave
declared emergency situation leave
domestic or sexual violence leave
the employment requirements poster: circulation requirements
equivalent pay for equal work
family caregiver leave
household medical leave
household responsibility leave
suing
hours of work, consuming periods and pause
infectious disease emergency leave
licensing – short-term assistance companies and recruiters
lie detector tests
base pay
non-compete contracts
organ donor leave
overtime pay
payment of incomes
pregnancy and adult leave
public vacations
reservist leave
severance of employment
authorized leave
momentary aid companies
termination of work and temporary layoffs
ideas or gratuities
vacation.
composed policy on from work.
written policy on electronic monitoring of employees.
Reprisals are restricted
Employers are forbidden from penalizing staff members in any method since the worker exercised ESA rights.
Clients of temporary aid agencies are prohibited from penalizing task employees in any way since the assignment worker worked out ESA rights.
Recruiters are prohibited from penalizing prospective employees who engage or use the employer’s services in any way for specific factors, consisting of asking the recruiter to abide by the Act or inquiring about whether an individual holds a licence as needed by the ESA.
Employers, employment customers of momentary aid agencies and recruiters who dedicate a reprisal can be:
– ordered to compensate the staff member, task employee or prospective employee.
– ordered to restore the staff member or assignment staff member (if the reprisal was dedicated by a company or customer of a short-term help firm).
– ordered to pay a charge.
– prosecuted.
Discover more about reprisals.
Greater right or benefit
If a provision in an employment agreement or another Act gives a staff member a higher right or advantage than a minimum work standard under the ESA then that provision applies to the worker rather of the employment standard.
No waiving of rights
No worker can accept waive or quit their rights under the ESA (for example, the right to receive overtime pay or public holiday pay). Any such arrangement is null and void.
Enforcement and compliance
Violations of the ESA can lead to enforcement action.
The kind of enforcement action that can be taken depends upon which arrangement of the ESA was contravened. Examples consist of:
– an order to pay.
– a compliance order.
– a ticket.
– a notification of contravention with a financial charge.
– an order to restore and/or compensate.
– prosecution.
Other workplace-related laws
The ESA consists of only a few of the rules affecting work in Ontario. Other provincial and federal legislation governs problems such as workplace health and safety, human rights and labour relations.
Related Ontario laws include the:
Occupational Health And Wellness Act.
Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997.
Labour Relations Act, 1995.
Pay Equity Act.
Human Rights Code.
For additional information about other Ontario laws, contact ServiceOntario:
– Tel: 416-326-1234 (in Toronto).
– Toll-free: 1-800-267-8097 (in the rest of Ontario).
– online at ServiceOntario.ca.
Federal laws impacting workplaces include statutes on income tax, work insurance coverage and the Canada Pension Plan.
For more details about federal laws, call the Government of Canada details line at 1-800-622-6232.
Who is not covered by the ESA?
Most workers and employers in Ontario are covered by the ESA. However, the ESA does not apply to some individuals and individuals or organizations they work for, such as:
– workers and employers in sectors that fall under federal work law jurisdiction, employment such as airlines, banks, the federal civil service, employment post workplaces, employment radio and tv stations and inter-provincial trains.
– individuals working under a program authorized by a college of applied arts and technology or university.
– people working under a program that is approved by a profession college registered under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005.
– secondary school students who work under a work experience program authorized by the school board that runs the school in which the student is enrolled.
– individuals who do community participation under the Ontario Works Act, 1997.
– police officers (other than for the lie detectors provisions of the ESA, which do use).
– inmates participating in work or rehab programs, or people who work as part of a sentence or order of a court.
– individuals who hold political, judicial, religious or elected trade union workplaces.
– major junior ice hockey players who fulfill specific conditions connected to scholarships.
– people who meet the definition of organization expert or infotech expert under the ESA if particular conditions are satisfied.
For a complete listing of other people not governed by the ESA, please inspect the ESA and its regulations.
Employee misclassification
Employers are forbidden from misclassifying staff members as independent contractors, interns, employment volunteers or any other type of worker not covered by the ESA.
Learn more about staff member misclassification.
Additional resources
In addition to this guide, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD) has additional resources readily available to help you:
– The Employment Standards Act Policy and Interpretation Manual is the main referral source for the policies of the Director of Employment Standards appreciating the interpretation, administration and enforcement of the ESA.
– Staff at the Employment Standards Information Centre are offered to answer your concerns about the ESA. Information is readily available in numerous languages. You can reach the details centre from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m.
