Bill 18 explained in plain English
Stronger Workplaces for a Stronger Economy Act, 2014
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 41st Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
The Stronger Workplaces for a Stronger Economy Act, 2014 amends various Ontario statutes to enhance employment and labour standards, including protections for foreign nationals, new rules for temporary help agencies, and updated labour relations provisions.
This Act, titled the Stronger Workplaces for a Stronger Economy Act, 2014, amends several Ontario laws related to employment and labour. It aims to strengthen worker protections and improve workplace standards. Key changes include expanding the scope of the Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act, introducing new record-keeping and joint liability rules for temporary help agencies and their clients, enhancing employer obligations regarding information sharing and self-audits, and updating rules for labour relations in the construction industry. The Act also modifies the definition of 'worker' under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and adjusts provisions within the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act concerning temporary help agencies.
- Amends the Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act, 2009 to broaden its application beyond live-in caregivers to all foreign nationals employed or seeking employment in Ontario.
- Introduces new record-keeping obligations for temporary help agencies and their clients regarding assignment employees, and establishes joint liability for unpaid wages.
- Requires employers to provide employees with copies of government-published employment standards posters.
- Establishes a new process for the annual adjustment of the minimum wage based on inflation, with provisions for rounding and preventing decreases.
- Grants employment standards officers the power to require employers to conduct self-audits of their compliance with employment standards legislation.
- Removes the $10,000 cap on orders for recovery of wages for wages earned on or after the Act's commencement date.
- Extends the time limit for recovering wages from six months to two years.
- Introduces new 'open periods' for union certification and employee applications to decertify unions in the construction industry.
- Amends the definition of 'worker' under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
- Introduces regulations concerning temporary help agencies and workplace injuries within the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, potentially assigning responsibility and costs to the client employer.
- Foreign nationals seeking or holding employment in Ontario.
- Employers in Ontario, including temporary help agencies and their clients.
- Employees in Ontario.
- Recruiters involved in the employment of foreign nationals.
- Trade unions and employees in the construction industry.
- Employment standards officers.
- The general public through information posters.
- Employers must provide employees with copies of employment standards posters.
- Temporary help agencies and their clients must maintain records of hours worked by assignment employees.
- Temporary help agencies and their clients are jointly and severally liable for certain unpaid wages owed to assignment employees.
- Employment standards officers can require employers to conduct self-audits and report on compliance.
- The time limit for employees to recover wages has been extended to two years.
- Orders for recovery of wages under Section 103 of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 no longer have a $10,000 cap for wages earned after the commencement date.
- The Labour Relations Act, 1995 now defines specific 'open periods' for union certification and decertification applications in the construction industry.
- The Act received Royal Assent on November 20, 2014. (Section 2(1))
- Most of the Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent. (Section 2(1))
- Schedule 1 (Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act amendments) comes into force on the first anniversary of the Royal Assent date. (Section 14 of Schedule 1)
- Schedule 2 (Employment Standards Act, 2000 amendments) has various commencement dates: Sections 7(1) and 8(1-5) come into force three months after Royal Assent; Section 1(2) and Section 6 come into force six months after Royal Assent; Sections 4 and 5 come into force on the first anniversary of Royal Assent; Section 7(2) comes into force two years after Section 7(1) comes into force; Section 8(6) comes into force two years after Section 8(4) comes into force; Section 9 comes into force on October 1, 2015. (Section 10 of Schedule 2)
- Schedule 3 (Labour Relations Act, 1995 amendments) comes into force six months after the Royal Assent date. (Section 3 of Schedule 3)
- Schedule 4 (Occupational Health and Safety Act amendments) comes into force on the day the Act receives Royal Assent. (Section 2 of Schedule 4)
- Schedule 5 (Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 amendments) comes into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor. (Section 3 of Schedule 5)
- The minimum wage is set to be adjusted annually starting October 1, 2015. (Section 23.1(4) of Schedule 2)
- The new minimum wage framework under Section 9 of Schedule 2 comes into effect on October 1, 2015.
- Provisions related to temporary help agencies and their clients (Sections 4 and 5 of Schedule 2) come into force on the first anniversary of Royal Assent.
- Provisions related to employer self-audits (Section 6 of Schedule 2) come into force six months after Royal Assent.
- Temporary help agencies and their clients may be liable for unpaid wages owed to assignment employees.
- The Workplace Safety and Insurance Act amendments may affect the premiums paid by employers based on the frequency of work injuries and accident costs.
- The minimum wage adjustment mechanism may impact employers' payroll costs through annual increases tied to inflation.
- Employment standards officers have enhanced powers to require employers to conduct self-audits and can issue orders for compliance or payment of wages based on these audits or other investigations.
- Failure to comply with record-keeping requirements for temporary help agencies and their clients could lead to liability for unpaid wages.
- Regulations made under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 may prescribe penalties for failing to report workplace injuries involving temporary help agency workers.
- The exact commencement dates for Schedule 5 of the Act (amending the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997) depend on proclamation by the Lieutenant Governor, meaning they are not yet fixed.
- The specific details of 'prescribed costs' that employers may recover from foreign nationals are not defined within the provided text and would be specified in regulations.
- The application of new rules for the construction industry in the Labour Relations Act, 1995 depends on the specific terms of collective agreements (e.g., duration, renewal provisions).
- The exact calculation and application of the annual minimum wage adjustment depend on the Consumer Price Index figures and rounding rules outlined in the Act.
Expands the Act's application to all foreign nationals employed or seeking employment in Ontario, not just live-in caregivers. It also changes how employers and recruiters must provide information and allows for cost recovery from foreign nationals under certain circumstances.
Source: Schedule 1
Requires employers to provide employees with posters on employment standards, introduces record-keeping rules and joint liability for temporary help agencies and their clients for unpaid wages, allows officers to require employer self-audits, removes the $10,000 cap on wage recovery orders for wages earned after commencement, and extends the time limit for wage recovery claims to two years.
Source: Schedule 2
Introduces new rules for union certification and employee applications for decertification in the construction industry, establishing specific 'open periods' during which such applications can be made.
Source: Schedule 3
Amends the definition of 'worker' to include persons performing work or services for monetary compensation, students in work experience programs without pay, and individuals receiving training but not considered employees under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 under specific conditions.
Source: Schedule 4
Adds a definition for 'temporary help agency' and allows for regulations to be made regarding how workplace injuries and associated costs for temporary help agency workers are handled, potentially attributing them to the client employer.
Source: Schedule 5
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill does not have a published recorded division in the current official sources, so representative-by-representative vote counts are not shown.
No published representative vote breakdown
The current official sources do not publish a recorded division breakdown for this bill, so there is no representative-by-representative table to show.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced