Bill 149 explained in plain English
Working for Workers Four Act, 2024
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 43rd 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 Working for Workers Four Act, 2024, amends Ontario laws concerning employment standards, digital platform work, regulated professions, and workplace safety insurance.
Bill 149, the Working for Workers Four Act, 2024, amends several Ontario laws related to employment and labour. Key changes include requirements for job postings to include compensation information and disclose the use of artificial intelligence in hiring, new rules for paying tips, and updates to how trial periods are considered training. It also makes changes to how pay periods and minimum wage are calculated for digital platform workers, and modifies provisions under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act related to firefighter cancer presumptions and the indexing of benefits. The Act also aims to improve fairness in the assessment of qualifications for regulated professions.
- Introduces new requirements for publicly advertised job postings, including the disclosure of compensation ranges and the use of artificial intelligence in the hiring process.
- Amends the definition of training for employees to include work performed during a trial period.
- Establishes new rules for the payment of tips and other gratuities to employees, including methods and requirements for employers.
- Introduces requirements for employers to post and retain policies related to sharing in tips.
- Clarifies rules for paying vacation pay, requiring employee agreement for specific payment methods.
- Amends the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022, to allow for regulations to prescribe limits on pay periods and pay days, and rules for determining minimum wage compliance.
- Amends the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006, to establish prescribed requirements for assessing qualifications in a transparent, objective, impartial, and fair manner.
- Amends the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, to create a presumption for primary-site esophageal cancer for firefighters and fire investigators.
- Introduces provisions for an additional indexing factor to adjust payments under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act.
- Provides the Lieutenant Governor in Council with the authority to make regulations for transitional matters related to the implementation of the Act.
- Employees
- Employers
- Digital platform workers
- Workers in regulated professions
- Firefighters
- Fire investigators
- Recipients of payments or benefits under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act
- Employers must include compensation information in publicly advertised job postings.
- Employers must disclose the use of artificial intelligence in screening, assessing, or selecting applicants in job postings.
- Employers are prohibited from including Canadian experience requirements in publicly advertised job postings, with some exceptions.
- Employees have rights regarding the method of payment for tips and gratuities.
- Employers must post and retain policies related to sharing in tips.
- Employers must retain copies of publicly advertised job postings and associated application forms.
- The Act received Royal Assent on March 21, 2024, and came into force on that day, except for certain provisions.
- Some provisions of Schedule 2 (Employment Standards Act, 2000) come into force three months after Royal Assent.
- Other provisions of Schedule 2 come into force on a day to be named by proclamation.
- Schedule 3 (Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006) comes into force on a day to be named by proclamation.
- Schedule 1 provisions come into force on the later of specific dates related to the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022, and Royal Assent of this Act.
- Schedule 4 provisions related to firefighter cancer presumptions come into force on a day to be named by proclamation.
- Schedule 4 provisions related to additional indexing factors come into force on a day to be named by proclamation.
- Amendments to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, introduce an additional indexing factor that may affect the adjustment of payments and benefits.
- The requirement for compensation information in job postings may influence employer compensation strategies.
- The Act amends Part III.1 of the Employment Standards Act, 2000, which is subject to enforcement under Part XXI (Who Enforces this Act and What They Can Do) and Part XXII (Complaints and Enforcement) of that Act.
- The Act makes reference to powers and procedures for enforcement and penalties as outlined in various Parts of the Employment Standards Act, 2000.
- The specific number of days for pay periods and pay days for digital platform workers will be prescribed by regulation.
- The rules for determining compliance with minimum wage for digital platform workers may be prescribed by regulation.
- Criteria for exceptions to job posting requirements (compensation, Canadian experience, AI disclosure) will be prescribed by regulation.
- The definition of 'artificial intelligence' and 'publicly advertised job posting' for the purposes of new job posting rules are set out in regulations.
- Prescribed criteria may apply to employee bank accounts used for direct deposit of wages.
- The Lieutenant Governor in Council is empowered to make regulations for transitional matters and to prescribe various details, including indexing factors and dates for adjustments under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act.
- The application of the additional indexing factor under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act may be subject to terms, restrictions, limitations, conditions, or exclusions set out in regulations.
Allows regulations to prescribe limits on pay periods and pay days, and rules for determining minimum wage compliance. Also makes a minor translation correction in the French version.
Source: Schedule 1
Changes the definition of training to include trial periods, introduces new rules for job postings (compensation, AI use, Canadian experience), amends rules for direct deposit of wages, clarifies circumstances for cash shortages, establishes new rules for paying and sharing tips, clarifies vacation pay payment methods, and adds new sections related to job posting retention and tip sharing policy retention.
Source: Schedule 2
Introduces provisions for prescribed requirements to determine if qualification assessments by regulated professions are transparent, objective, impartial, and fair, and if reasonable measures are taken when third parties conduct such assessments.
Source: Schedule 3
Establishes a presumption for primary-site esophageal cancer for firefighters and fire investigators. Introduces provisions for an additional indexing factor to adjust certain payments and benefits, with related regulation-making powers.
Source: Schedule 4
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