Your Guide to The Employment Standards Act
This guide is a convenient source of info about essential areas of the ESA. It is for your info and help just. It is not a legal file. If you need information or specific language, please refer to the ESA itself and its guidelines.
This guide should not be utilized as or referall.us considered legal recommendations. You may have higher rights under an employment agreement, cumulative contract, the typical law or other legislation. If you’re unsure about anything in this guide, please talk to an attorney.
Topics covered by the ESA?
These include:
benefit plans
bereavement leave
kid death leave
crime-related child disappearance leave
important disease leave
stated emergency situation leave
domestic or sexual violence leave
the work requirements poster: circulation requirements
equivalent spend for equivalent work
household caretaker leave
family medical leave
family duty leave
filing a claim
hours of work, consuming durations and rest durations
infectious illness emergency situation leave
licensing – short-term help companies and recruiters
lie detector tests
base pay
non-compete agreements
organ donor leave
overtime pay
payment of salaries
pregnancy and adult leave
public vacations
reservist leave
severance of employment
authorized leave
temporary assistance companies
termination of work and short-term layoffs
tips or gratuities
vacation.
composed policy on disconnecting from work.
written policy on electronic monitoring of workers.
Reprisals are prohibited
Employers are forbidden from penalizing employees in any method because the staff member exercised ESA rights.
Clients of short-lived assistance firms are forbidden from penalizing project staff members in any way because the task worker worked out ESA rights.
Recruiters are forbidden from penalizing potential staff members who engage or use the employer’s services in any way for certain reasons, including asking the employer to adhere to the Act or inquiring about whether a person holds a licence as needed by the ESA.
Employers, customers of momentary assistance companies and employers who devote a reprisal can be:
– ordered to compensate the worker, task staff member or prospective worker.
– ordered to renew the staff member or project employee (if the reprisal was committed by a company or customer of a momentary help agency).
– bought to pay a penalty.
– prosecuted.
Discover more about reprisals.
Greater right or advantage
If an arrangement in an employment agreement or another Act gives a worker a greater right or benefit than a minimum work requirement under the ESA then that arrangement uses to the employee rather of the employment requirement.
No waiving of rights
No employee can agree to waive or provide up their rights under the ESA (for instance, the right to receive overtime pay or public holiday pay). Any such agreement is null and space.
Enforcement and compliance
Violations of the ESA can result in enforcement action.
The type of enforcement action that can be taken depends on which arrangement of the ESA was contravened. Examples include:
– an order to pay.
– a compliance order.
– a ticket.
– a notification of breach with a monetary charge.
– an order to restore and/or compensate.
– prosecution.
Other workplace-related laws
The ESA consists of only a few of the guidelines impacting operate in Ontario. Other provincial and federal legislation governs issues such as workplace health and wellness, human rights and labour relations.
Related Ontario laws consist of the:
Occupational Health And Wellness Act.
Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997.
Labour Relations Act, 1995.
Pay Equity Act.
Human Rights Code.
To find out more 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 affecting work environments consist of statutes on income tax, employment insurance and the Canada Pension Plan.
To find out more about federal laws, call the Government of Canada information line at 1-800-622-6232.
Who is not covered by the ESA?
Most workers and companies in Ontario are covered by the ESA. However, the ESA does not use to some people and individuals or companies they work for, such as:
– staff members and employers in sectors that fall under federal work law jurisdiction, such as airline companies, banks, the federal civil service, post offices, radio and television stations and inter-provincial trains.
– people working under a program authorized by a college of used arts and technology or university.
– people working under a program that is authorized by a profession college signed up under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005.
– secondary school students who work under a work experience program licensed by the school board that runs the school in which the student is enrolled.
– people who do community participation under the Ontario Works Act, 1997.
– law enforcement officer (other than for the lie detectors arrangements of the ESA, which do use).
– inmates participating in work or rehabilitation programs, or people who work as part of a sentence or order of a court.
– people who hold political, judicial, or chosen trade union offices.
– major junior ice hockey gamers who meet certain conditions associated with scholarships.
– people who satisfy the meaning of business expert or infotech consultant under the ESA if certain conditions are satisfied.
For a complete listing of other individuals not governed by the ESA, please inspect the ESA and its guidelines.
Employee misclassification
Employers are forbidden from misclassifying workers as independent professionals, interns, volunteers or any other kind of employee not covered by the ESA.
Find out more about employee misclassification.
Additional resources
In addition to this guide, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD) has additional resources available to assist you:
– The Employment Standards Act Policy and Interpretation Manual is the main recommendation 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 available to answer your questions about the ESA. Information is available in many languages. You can reach the info centre from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m.