Employment Standards Act | December 6, 2016

General

1. The purpose of the Employment Standards Act is to establish rights and responsibilities of both employers and employees in Ontario workplaces. ESA provides employment standards, such as public holidays, hours of work, minimum wage, vacations and other standards.
2. People who are not covered by the ESA are: police officers, people who do community participation under the Ontario Works Act, 1997, employees that fall under jurisdiction, such as banks, post offices, the federal civil service, airlines, radio and television station and inter-provincial railways, people who hold political, judicial, religious or elected trade union offices and individuals performing work under a program approved by a college of applied arts and technology or university.

Record Keeping

1. All employers are required to keep written record on their employees.
2. On a written record, employers must include: the employee's name, address and starting date of employment, employee’s date of birth if employee is under 18, hours worked by the employee each day and week, retention of vacation time records, retention of written agreements to work excess hours of average overtime pay, retention of vacation pay records, homeworker register, all documents relating to an employee’s health and family problems and information contained in an employee’s wage statement.

Minimum Wage

1. Minimum wage laws do not apply to secondary school students performing work under a program authorized by the school board, student in training for a certain occupations such as law, optometry, medicine, architecture, and professional engineering, persons employed as a student to instruct or supervise children and persons performing work under a program approved by a college or university.
2. The “Three-Hour Rule” is when an employee who regularly works more than three hours but works less than three hours, must be paid whichever the amount is the highest.
3. The minimum wage for general workers in Ontario is $11.40 per hour.

Hours of Work

1. The maximum required hours of work for employees are 8 hours daily or 48 hours weekly.
2. An employee can work more than 60 hours in a week only when there is an agreement between an employee and an employer or an approval from the Director of Employment Standards for excess weekly hours.
3. An employee is entitled to overtime pay when they have agreed to longer workdays or work weeks after they have worked 44 hours in a workweek.
4. An employee can’t work for more than 5 hours in a row without getting a 30-minute eating break. If both the employee and employer agree then the employee can get two breaks within the 5 hours. But the meal breaks must add up to 30 minutes.
5. The employer does not need to give employees coffee breaks.
6. An employee must have at least of 11 consecutive hours of work each day.
7. An employee must have 8 hours of work between shifts.
8. An employee must have 24 consecutive hours off work each work week.
9. There is nothing in the ESA that says that employees who work on Sundays, or late at night get paid more.
10. Managers and supervisors do not qualify for overtime pay. Even if they were to do some special task they are not entitled to get overtime pay.
11. Overtime Pay - Overtime pay is 112 times the employee’s regular pay.
12. An employee receives overtime pay when they have worked 44 hours in a workweek. If they exceed this then they get overtime pay.
13. An employee can get paid time off instead of overtime pay if the employer has an agreement with the employee.
14. Someone on a fixed salary can receive overtime pay if they for all non-overtime hours up to and including 44 hours a week. So after the 44 hours, the employee who is on a fixed salary is entitled to overtime pay.
15. If an employer does not follow the ESA than the employee can call the Employment Standards Information Centre and file a complaint.

Public Holidays

1. Ontario has nine holidays considered ‘paid holidays’:

• New Year’s Day
• Family Day
• Good Friday
• Victoria Day
• Canada Day
• Labour Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day (December 26)

2. If an employee agrees to work during a public holiday, then they could get paid by a premium pay for all the hours they worked on the holiday and not receive another day off, or get paid their regular wages for all hours they worked on the holiday and receive another substitute holiday.

Vacation

1. An employee is entitled to vacation time after working with an employer for 1 year.
2. An employee is entitled to two weeks of vacation time after working for 1 year with an employer.

Termination

1. After 3 months of consecutive service, an employer must provide the employee with a written notice of termination, termination pay or a combination of both.
2. Two examples of reasons that an employer can’t use to terminate someone are: employees exercising a right under the ESA, and an employee asking a question about the ESA.
3. If an employee has been working for 3 months, but less than a year then the employer must give a notice for 1 week.If an employee has been working for 1 year, but less than 3 years then the employer must give a notice for 2 weeks.
4. An employee is entitled to notice of termination if they have been employed for at least three months.
5. Termination Pay - If the employee does not receive a written notice, then they are required to be given a termination pay. Termination pay is equal to the regular wages for a regular work week.

Equal Pay for Equal Work

1. Equal pay for equal work means that men and women are to receive equal pay for performing substantially the same job. This means that the work is fall under the same category, requires the same skill, effort, and responsibility and performed under similar working conditions in the same work area.
2. There are exceptions when it comes to Equal pay for Equal Work:

• Seniority System - If an employee with greater seniority than another employee of the opposite sex may get paid more
• Merit System - An employee may get paid more based on their merit if the pay rates is based on a person's merit
• Measures earnings by quantity or quality of production - An employee may get paid more if the pay rates are based on a system that measures how much the employee produces or the quality of what they produce.