Law Times

LAW TIMES COVERING ONTARIO'S LEGAL SCENE | JANUARY 28, 2019 9 www.lawtimesnews.com BY MEAGAN GILLMORE For Law Times O ntario's employment and labour laws could undergo more changes in 2019. On Dec. 6, the government introduced Bill 66, Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act. The omnibus legislation pro- poses changes to several laws, including the Employment Standards Act and the Labour Relations Act. This is in addi- tion to changes already in force with the passing of Bill 47, Mak- ing Ontario Open for Business Act in November. That reversed several changes introduced in November 2017 when the then- Liberal government passed Bill 148, The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act. Bill 66 proposes to change the ESA by removing the re- quirement that the director of employment standards approve agreements between employers and employees that allow em- ployees to work more than 48 hours a week or to average their hours to determine how much overtime pay they're owed, the bill says. It also proposes to remove the requirement that employers post a poster in the workplace detail- ing employees' rights under the ESA. The bill contemplates chang- ing the definition of "non- construction employer" in the Labour Relations Act to include municipalities, mu- nicipal boards, school boards, hospitals, colleges established by the Ontario Colleges of Ap- plied Arts and Technology Act, universities that receive govern- ment funding and public bodies defined in the Public Service of Ontario Act. "This isn't one of these things like a future change in payroll or a change in vacation pay where employers will have to plan it out and make budgeting condi- tions," says Lucas Mapplebeck, an associate with Filion Wakely Thorup Angeletti LLP in Ham- ilton, Ont., about the proposed changes to the overtime and av- eraging agreements. "It's just a matter of changing how the employer does certain things." Craig Rix, a partner at Hicks Morley LLP in Toronto, says these changes are consistent with other government actions. "The government has been clear in signalling since the elec- tion that it's interested in com- ing at a variety of laws with an eye to the 'Ontario-is-open-for- business' mandate," he says. Rix says the proposed chang- es to the process of approving averaging and overtime agree- ments "doesn't mean that the rules go away entirely." "It just means that there's a different process to deal with things like hours of work, agree- ments for overtime averaging," he says. Right now, an employer and an employee have to agree about overtime and averaging agree- ments, and the director of em- ployment standards has to ap- prove the arrangement, he says. This change, if passed, would mean the director's approval is no longer needed, but the em- ployer and employee would still have to agree. These changes to overtime and averaging agreements are "very relevant," says Mapple- beck. "It's going to have an impact particularly on employers in any sector where there is a need to have either f lexibility because your employees work varying hours per week or sectors where there simply is a requirement to occasionally have employees work many hours in a week for whatever reason," he says. Ernie Schirru, a partner at Koskie Minsky LLP, who prac- tises union-side labour law, says removing the need for a direc- tor's approval is "another ero- sion of the safeguards that are put in place to protect employees in that inherent imbalance of power" between employers and employees. He says employees who are represented by unions may not be too negatively impacted by the change, if it passes, because the union would have to agree to these arrangements. Employees who aren't rep- resented by a union may fear reprimands or discipline if they refuse to work overtime, he says. Schirru says he also has con- cerns about potentially remov- ing the requirement that em- ployers post a poster detailing employment standards in the workplace. "Often, [workers] don't know what their rights are and aren't sure how to avail themselves of those rights," he says. "Those posters play an im- portant part in conveying that information. "Employees typically don't turn their minds to their rights and entitlements until an issue arises in the workplace," Schir- ru says. "That's why having the poster in the workplace makes more sense." LT Lucas Mapplebeck says changes to over- time and averaging agreements in Ontario are 'very relevant.' FOCUS Additional changes for employment laws proposed "The government has been clear in signalling since the election that it's interested in coming at a variety of laws with an eye to the 'Ontario-is-open-for- business' mandate." Craig Rix The Canadian Lawyer InHouse Innovatio Awards is the pre-eminent award program recognizing innovation by members of the in-house bar within the Canadian legal market. These awards celebrate in-house counsel, both individuals and teams, who show leadership by becoming more efficient, innovative and creative in meeting the needs of their organizations. The Innovatio awards program draws on a panel of in-house counsel judges to determine the winners, based on a range of criteria. NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN NOMINATE AN INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM IN THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES: • Law department leadership • Law department management • Legal operations • Diversity • Best practices in compliance systems • In-house M&A/Dealmakers • Working with external counsel • Litigation management • Risk management • Tomorrow's leader in innovation Accepting nominations from large, small and public sector/non-profit legal departments. NOMINATIONS CLOSE MARCH 29, 2019 For more information or to nominate visit www.innovatio-awards.com Questions? Contact Jennifer Brown | jen.brown@tr.com THE E B O L G AND MAIL SIGNATURE SPONSOR BRONZE SPONSOR MEDIA PARTNER GOLD SPONSOR PLATINUM SPONSOR COCKTAIL SPONSOR SILVER SPONSOR Untitled-1 1 2019-01-31 10:36 AM

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