Ontario’s Labour Minister wants workers across the province to have less stress when they’re off the clock.
Monte McNaughton says with more people working from home through the pandemic, the lines between work time and family time have been blurred.
“COVID-19 has changed the way we work, leaving too many people behind, struggling to put food on the table and make ends meet for their families,” McNaughton says. “Our government is working for workers. To do so, we must act swiftly and decisively to put workers in the driver’s seat and begin rebalancing the scales.
Policies could include expectations about response time for emails, for example, or encouraging employees to turn on out-of-office notifications when they aren’t working.
“We’re going to be making changes to the Employment Standards Act that every company with 25 employees or more has a right to disconnect policy, and Ministry of Labour inspectors will ensure that there is a policy posted and it’s enforced.”
However, McNaughton says he understands not every business operates on a standard 9-5 workday.
“Every employer with 25 or more employees will have to have a policy tailored to their workplace, and the Ministry will ensure that is in place, and if workers have issues they can call the Ministry of Labour,” McNaughton says. “This is about bringing those meaningful changes in workplaces so workers know when they’re on the company clock and when they’re off.”
The proposed legislation will also prohibit employers from using non-compete agreements that restrict employees from taking new jobs with another business in the same field after they leave the company.
