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Your Guide to The Employment Standards Act
rebekahspivako edited this page 2025-02-21 09:24:00 +02:00


This guide is a convenient source of information about crucial areas of the ESA. It is for your info and help only. It is not a legal document. If you need information or specific language, please describe the ESA itself and its guidelines.

This guide should not be used as or thought about legal guidance. You might have higher rights under an employment agreement, cumulative contract, the typical law or other legislation. If you're uncertain about anything in this guide, please talk with an attorney.

Topics covered by the ESA?

These include:

benefit plans
bereavement leave
kid death leave
crime-related child disappearance leave
crucial disease leave
declared emergency leave
domestic or sexual violence leave
the work requirements poster: distribution requirements
equal pay for equal work
family caretaker leave
family medical leave
household responsibility leave
submitting a claim
hours of work, consuming durations and pause
contagious illness emergency leave
licensing - short-term aid agencies and employers
lie detector tests
base pay
non-compete contracts
organ donor leave
overtime pay
payment of incomes
pregnancy and adult leave
public vacations
reservist leave
severance of work
ill leave
short-term help firms
termination of employment and short-lived layoffs
pointers or gratuities
holiday.
composed policy on disconnecting from work.
on electronic monitoring of employees.
Reprisals are prohibited

Employers are forbidden from punishing staff members in any method because the staff member exercised ESA rights.

Clients of momentary aid firms are prohibited from punishing project employees in any method due to the fact that the assignment worker worked out ESA rights.

Recruiters are prohibited from punishing potential employees who engage or visualchemy.gallery utilize the recruiter's services in any way for certain reasons, including asking the recruiter to comply with the Act or making questions about whether a person holds a licence as needed by the ESA.

Employers, customers of temporary aid firms and recruiters who dedicate a reprisal can be:

- bought to compensate the worker, project employee or prospective staff member.
- bought to renew the worker or assignment staff member (if the reprisal was dedicated by an employer or client of a short-term help agency).
- bought to pay a charge.
- prosecuted.
Discover more about reprisals.

Greater right or advantage

If a provision in an employment contract or another Act gives an employee a higher right or benefit than a minimum employment standard under the ESA then that arrangement applies to the staff member instead of the employment requirement.

No waiving of rights

No staff member can agree to waive or give up their rights under the ESA (for instance, the right to receive overtime pay or public holiday pay). Any such contract is null and space.

Enforcement and compliance

Violations of the ESA can lead to enforcement action.

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

- an order to pay.
- a compliance order.
- a ticket.
- a notification of conflict with a monetary charge.
- an order to renew and/or compensate.
- prosecution.
Other workplace-related laws

The ESA includes only some of the guidelines impacting work in Ontario. Other provincial and federal legislation governs issues such as workplace health and akropolistravel.com wellness, human rights and labour relations.

Related Ontario laws consist of the:

Occupational Health and Safety 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 impacting offices consist of statutes on income tax, work insurance coverage and the Canada Pension Plan.

For more info about federal laws, call the Government of Canada information line at 1-800-622-6232.

Who is not covered by the ESA?

Most employees and employers in Ontario are covered by the ESA. However, the ESA does not apply to some individuals and the individuals or organizations they work for, such as:

- workers and companies in sectors that fall under federal work law jurisdiction, such as airlines, banks, the federal civil service, post workplaces, radio and tv stations and inter-provincial railways.
- people working under a program authorized by a college of used arts and technology or university.
- individuals 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 authorized by the school board that runs the school in which the student is enrolled.
- people who do community involvement under the Ontario Works Act, 1997.
- cops officers (except for the lie detectors arrangements of the ESA, which do apply).
- inmates participating in work or rehabilitation programs, or individuals who work as part of a sentence or order of a court.
- individuals who hold political, judicial, religious or elected trade union offices.
- major junior ice hockey players who satisfy certain conditions connected to scholarships.
- people who fulfill the meaning of organization expert or details innovation expert under the ESA if certain conditions are fulfilled.
For a complete listing of other individuals not governed by the ESA, please examine the ESA and its policies.

Employee misclassification

Employers are restricted from misclassifying workers as independent specialists, interns, volunteers or any other type of worker not covered by the ESA.

Find out more about staff member 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 primary referral 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 readily available to address your concerns about the ESA. Information is readily available in lots of languages. You can reach the information centre from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m.