Bill 129 explained in plain English
Labour Relations Amendment Act (Employee Rights), 2013
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 40th Parliament, 2nd 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
Bill 129 amends the Labour Relations Act, 1995 to enhance employee rights by improving access to employee information for unions, diversifying vote procedures, reinforcing just cause protections, expanding successor rights, and requiring the distribution of labour relations information.
Bill 129, also known as the Labour Relations Amendment Act (Employee Rights), 2013, proposes changes to Ontario's Labour Relations Act, 1995. These changes aim to enhance employee rights and streamline labour relations processes. Key amendments include requiring employers to provide employee lists to unions upon request during organizing campaigns, allowing representation votes to be held at neutral sites or electronically, strengthening protections against unjust discharge or discipline, extending successor rights to the contract services sector, and mandating the creation and posting of a labour relations information poster by the Minister. The bill also modifies rules for employee reinstatement after strikes or lock-outs and adjusts the Ontario Labour Relations Board's powers regarding interim orders for reinstatement.
- Requires employers to provide trade unions with lists of employees in a potential bargaining unit and other employees if a union campaign is underway and at least 20% of employees are union members.
- Allows the Ontario Labour Relations Board to order representation votes to be conducted at a neutral site, electronically, or by telephone.
- Amends the Act to state that employers shall not discharge or discipline employees without just cause in certain circumstances related to union certification or collective bargaining.
- Extends the rules for successor rights, which apply when a business is sold, to the contract services sector.
- Amends the provisions related to the reinstatement of employees after a lawful strike or lock-out.
- Requires the Minister to prepare and publish a poster with information about labour relations in Ontario, which employers must post in the workplace.
- Modifies the Ontario Labour Relations Board's powers to make interim orders for employee reinstatement or concerning terms of employment in certain pending proceedings.
- Trade unions
- Employers
- Employees
- The Ontario Labour Relations Board
- The Minister of Labour
- Employees have the right to be discharged or disciplined only with just cause in certain circumstances.
- Trade unions have the right to request employee lists from employers during organizing campaigns.
- Employers are obligated to provide employee lists to trade unions under specific conditions.
- Employers are obligated to post a labour relations information poster in the workplace.
- Employees have the right to be reinstated under specific conditions after a strike or lock-out.
- The Ontario Labour Relations Board has the power to order representation votes at neutral sites or electronically.
- The Ontario Labour Relations Board has the power to issue interim orders for employee reinstatement.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The bill does not explicitly mention any direct financial or tax impacts.
- The bill modifies provisions related to unfair labour practices, which may involve penalties or remedies determined by the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
- The Ontario Labour Relations Board can substitute a lesser penalty if it determines an employer discharged or disciplined an employee for cause, but the initial discharge or discipline was without just cause.
- The Board can make interim orders requiring reinstatement or addressing terms of employment, which would be enforced by the Board.
- The bill does not specify the exact content or format of the labour relations poster beyond requiring it to contain information about employee and employer rights and obligations.
- While the bill provides for interim orders for reinstatement, it includes exceptions where the Board shall not exercise its powers if irreparable harm would be caused to the employer or if the employer's actions could not be related to the exercise of rights under the Act.
- The bill does not detail the specific criteria the Ontario Labour Relations Board will use to determine 'just cause' for discharge or discipline beyond the context provided in Section 73.1.
This bill makes several changes to the Labour Relations Act, 1995, affecting various aspects of labour relations, including employee rights, union organizing, representation votes, successor rights, and employer obligations.
Source: Explanatory Note, Section 1, Section 2, Section 3, Section 4, Section 5, Section 6, Section 7
The provisions governing the reinstatement of employees after a lawful strike or lock-out are amended.
Source: Section 5
The powers of the Ontario Labour Relations Board to make interim orders for employee reinstatement or concerning terms of employment during pending proceedings are modified.
Source: Section 7
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.
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Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
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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