Bill 149 Receives Royal Assent – Employee Rights/ Labour Relations

Further to our earlier blog post regarding Ontario’s
proposed Bill 149, the Working for Workers Four Act,
2023 (Bill 149), on March 21, 2024, Bill 149 received
royal assent. As described in our earlier blog post, Bill 149
imposes new requirements regarding pay transparency, Canadian work
experience and the use of AI in job postings, among other
things.

Below is a reminder of the changes introduced by Bill 149 and
their respective effective dates. For a more in-depth discussion of
the changes, please see our earlier blog post.

Pursuant to Bill 149, the following amendments to the
Employment Standards Act, 2000 (Ontario) (the
ESA) are currently in force as of March 21, 2024:

• Deductions: employers are expressly prohibited
  from withholding or deducting wages from an employee where a
  customer of a restaurant, gas station or other establishment leaves
  the establishment without paying for their goods or services




• Trial periods: the meaning of
  “training” for the purposes of the definition of
  “employee” under the ESA has been clarified to include an
  employee in a “trial period”. As noted previously, this
  appears to be a clarifying change rather than a substantive one,
  since the ESA already provides that employees must be paid for all
  work that is permitted to be done by the employee.

The following noteworthy ESA amendments will come into force on
June 21, 2024:

• Tips: if an employer opts to pay their
  employees tips and gratuities by cash or cheque, such payments must
  be given to the employee at their workplace or at some other place
  agreeable to the employee. The amendments also provide that any tip
  sharing policy must be posted in a conspicuous place in the
  workplace and retained for three years.




• Vacation pay: alternative pay arrangements
  must be set out in an agreement and vacation pay must be paid out
  in accordance with the timing set out in that agreement

Perhaps most notably, Bill 149 introduces the following new
requirements related to job postings. Such requirements will not
come into effect until the date of proclamation, which is not yet
known:

• Pay transparency: employers will be required
  to include in any publicly advertised job posting the expected
  compensation or the range of expected compensation for the position
  ¹




• Canadian work experience: employers will be
  prohibited from including any requirements relating to Canadian
  work experience in publicly advertised job postings




• AI: employers will be required to include a
  statement disclosing their use of AI to screen, assess or select
  applicants for a position advertised in a publicly available job
  posting

Conclusion

We will continue to monitor legislative updates including when
the changes described above are proclaimed into force. Once the
amendments relating to job postings are effective, employers in
Ontario will need to ensure their publicly advertised job postings
are in compliance with these new requirements.

Footnote

1. There is a section of the bill which comes into force
on an unknown date that suggests this provision will be repealed.
As such, it is unclear when, and for how long, this requirement
would be effective.

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guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.