Your Guide to The Employment Standards Act

This guide is a practical source of details about essential areas of the ESA. It is for your information and help only. It is not a legal file. If you need information or specific language, please refer to the ESA itself and its policies.

This guide ought to not be utilized as or thought about legal suggestions. You might have higher rights under a work contract, cumulative arrangement, the common law or other legislation. If you’re not sure about anything in this guide, please talk with a lawyer.

Topics covered by the ESA?

These include:

benefit plans

bereavement leave

kid death leave

crime-related kid disappearance leave

important health problem leave

stated emergency situation leave

domestic or sexual violence leave

the employment standards poster: distribution requirements

equivalent spend for equivalent work

family caregiver leave

household medical leave

household obligation leave

filing a claim

hours of work, consuming durations and rest durations

transmittable disease emergency situation leave

licensing – momentary help firms and recruiters

lie detector tests

minimum wage

non-compete contracts

organ donor leave

overtime pay

payment of salaries

pregnancy and adult leave

public holidays

reservist leave

severance of work

authorized leave

temporary assistance agencies

termination of work and employment short-lived layoffs

tips or gratuities

vacation.

written policy on disconnecting from work.

composed policy on electronic tracking of staff members.

Reprisals are prohibited

Employers are prohibited from punishing workers in any way because the employee worked out ESA rights.

Clients of short-term aid firms are forbidden from punishing project workers in any way since the assignment staff member exercised ESA rights.

Recruiters are restricted from punishing potential employees who engage or utilize the employer’s services in any way for certain reasons, employment including asking the employer to abide by the Act or inquiring about whether a person holds a licence as needed by the ESA.

Employers, customers of temporary help firms and employers who dedicate a reprisal can be:

– bought to compensate the worker, project employee or potential staff member.

– purchased to reinstate the employee or project staff member (if the reprisal was devoted by a company or customer of a short-lived help firm).

– bought to pay a charge.

– prosecuted.

Discover more about reprisals.

Greater right or advantage

If an arrangement in an employment agreement or another Act provides a worker a higher right or advantage than a minimum employment requirement under the ESA then that arrangement uses to the worker instead of the employment standard.

No waiving of rights

No employee can accept waive or give up their rights under the ESA (for example, the right to get overtime pay or employment public holiday pay). Any such arrangement is null and space.

Enforcement and compliance

Violations of the ESA can result in enforcement action.

The kind of enforcement action that can be taken depends upon which provision of the ESA was contravened. Examples include:

– an order to pay.

– a compliance order.

– a ticket.

– a notice of conflict with a financial penalty.

– an order to restore and/or compensate.

– prosecution.

Other workplace-related laws

The ESA contains only some of the guidelines impacting operate in Ontario. Other provincial and federal legislation governs issues such as workplace health and security, human rights and labour relations.

Related Ontario laws include the:

Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997.

Labour Relations Act, 1995.

Pay Equity Act.

Human Rights Code.

For more details 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 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 people and individuals or organizations they work for, such as:

– employees and companies in sectors that fall under federal employment law jurisdiction, such as airlines, banks, the federal civil service, post offices, radio and television stations and inter-provincial trains.

– people working under a program approved by a college of used arts and innovation or university.

– individuals working under a program that is approved by a career college signed up 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 registered.

– people who do neighborhood participation under the Ontario Works Act, 1997.

– policeman (except for the lie detectors arrangements of the ESA, which do use).

– prisoners taking part in work or rehabilitation programs, or people who work as part of a sentence or order of a court.

who hold political, judicial, religious or chosen trade union offices.

– significant junior ice hockey players who satisfy particular conditions connected to scholarships.

– people who meet the definition of company consultant or infotech specialist under the ESA if certain conditions are satisfied.

For a complete listing of other individuals not governed by the ESA, please examine the ESA and its regulations.

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, employment Training and Skills Development (MLITSD) has additional resources readily available to help you:

– The Employment Standards Act Policy and Interpretation Manual is the primary recommendation source for the policies of the Director of Employment Standards respecting the interpretation, administration and enforcement of the ESA.

– Staff at the Employment Standards Information Centre are available to address your concerns about the ESA. Information is available in lots of languages. You can reach the details centre from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m.