Your Guide to The Employment Standards Act
This guide is a convenient source of info about key areas of the ESA. It is for your info and assistance just. It is not a legal document. If you need details or precise language, please describe the ESA itself and its guidelines.
This guide needs to not be used as or considered legal advice. You may have greater rights under an employment agreement, collective arrangement, the typical law or other legislation. If you're unsure about anything in this guide, please talk to a lawyer.
Topics covered by the ESA?
These include:
benefit plans
bereavement leave
child death leave
crime-related kid disappearance leave
critical illness leave
declared emergency leave
domestic or sexual violence leave
the employment standards poster: distribution requirements
equivalent pay for equal work
family caretaker leave
family medical leave
family obligation leave
filing a claim
hours of work, consuming periods and pause
infectious illness emergency leave
licensing - short-term and recruiters
lie detector tests
base pay
non-compete contracts
organ donor leave
overtime pay
payment of salaries
pregnancy and parental leave
public holidays
reservist leave
severance of employment
authorized leave
short-lived help firms
termination of employment and short-term layoffs
suggestions or gratuities
trip.
composed policy on detaching from work.
written policy on electronic monitoring of workers.
Reprisals are forbidden
Employers are forbidden from punishing workers in any method due to the fact that the staff member exercised ESA rights.
Clients of short-lived aid agencies are restricted from punishing task workers in any way because the assignment worker exercised ESA rights.
Recruiters are restricted from punishing prospective employees who engage or use the employer's services in any way for certain factors, consisting of asking the employer to adhere to the Act or inquiring about whether a person holds a licence as needed by the ESA.
Employers, clients of momentary help agencies and recruiters who devote a reprisal can be:
- bought to compensate the worker, task staff member or potential staff member.
- bought to renew the staff member or assignment staff member (if the reprisal was committed by a company or client of a short-term aid company).
- purchased to pay a charge.
- prosecuted.
Discover more about reprisals.
Greater right or advantage
If an arrangement in an employment contract or another Act gives a staff member a greater right or advantage than a minimum work standard under the ESA then that arrangement applies to the staff member instead of the work requirement.
No waiving of rights
No employee can consent to waive or give up their rights under the ESA (for example, the right to receive overtime pay or public vacation pay). Any such agreement is null and void.
Enforcement and compliance
Violations of the ESA can lead to enforcement action.
The kind of enforcement action that can be taken depends on which arrangement of the ESA was contravened. Examples consist of:
- an order to pay.
- a compliance order.
- a ticket.
- a notification of conflict with a monetary penalty.
- an order to renew and/or compensate.
- prosecution.
Other workplace-related laws
The ESA contains just some of the guidelines affecting work in Ontario. Other provincial and federal legislation governs concerns such as workplace health and 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: referall.us 1-800-267-8097 (in the rest of Ontario).
- online at ServiceOntario.ca.
Federal laws impacting workplaces consist of statutes on earnings tax, employment insurance coverage and the Canada Pension Plan.
To learn more 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 companies in Ontario are covered by the ESA. However, the ESA does not apply to some individuals and individuals or organizations they work for, such as:
- employees 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 trains.
- individuals working under a program authorized by a college of applied arts and technology or university.
- people working under a program that is authorized by a profession college registered under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005.
- secondary school trainees who work under a work experience program licensed by the school board that runs the school in which the trainee is registered.
- individuals who do neighborhood involvement under the Ontario Works Act, 1997.
- law enforcement officer (except for the lie detectors arrangements of the ESA, which do apply).
- inmates participating in work or rehab programs, or people who work as part of a sentence or order of a court.
- individuals who hold political, judicial, religious or chosen trade union workplaces.
- significant junior ice hockey players who satisfy specific conditions associated with scholarships.
- people who satisfy the definition of service expert or details technology specialist under the ESA if certain conditions are satisfied.
For a total listing of other individuals not governed by the ESA, please inspect the ESA and its guidelines.
Employee misclassification
Employers are restricted from misclassifying staff members as independent specialists, interns, volunteers or any other type of worker not covered by the ESA.
Find out more about worker misclassification.
Additional resources
In addition to this guide, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, 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 analysis, administration and enforcement of the ESA.
- Staff at the Employment Standards Information Centre are available to answer your concerns about the ESA. Information is readily available in many languages. You can reach the information centre from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m.
