Bill 109 explained in plain English
Employment and Labour Statute Law Amendment Act, 2015
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
This Act amends Ontario's employment and labour laws, including those related to firefighters, public sector transitions, and workplace safety, by introducing new unfair labour practice rules, modifying bargaining agent determination, enhancing worker claim protections, and adjusting penalties and benefit calculations.
Bill 109, also known as the Employment and Labour Statute Law Amendment Act, 2015, amends several Ontario laws related to employment and labour. These changes affect the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997, the Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act, 1997, and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997. The amendments introduce new provisions regarding unfair labour practices for firefighters, adjust rules for determining bargaining agents in public sector transitions, and strengthen protections for workers filing claims under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. Additionally, the bill increases penalties for certain offences and modifies procedures for determining average earnings for death benefits.
- Amends the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997, to introduce new provisions concerning unfair labour practices, dues deduction and remission, religious exemptions for association membership, and enforcement of arbitration decisions.
- Amends the Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act, 1997, to add a new exception for determining bargaining agents without a vote when a single agent already represents a significant majority of employees.
- Amends the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, to prohibit employers from discouraging or preventing workers from filing claims, establish new rules for calculating average earnings for death benefits, increase the maximum penalty for certain offences to $500,000, and create the position of a Fair Practices Commissioner.
- Specifies when different parts of the Act come into force, with some provisions effective on Royal Assent and others six months later.
- Firefighters
- Employers of firefighters
- Employees in the public sector undergoing transitions
- Trade unions and bargaining agents
- Workers filing claims for benefits under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997
- Employers
- The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board
- The Minister of Labour
- Arbitrators and arbitration boards
- The Labour Relations Board
- Associations must not act in an arbitrary, discriminatory, or bad faith manner when representing firefighters.
- Employers are prohibited from interfering with the formation or administration of firefighter associations.
- Firefighters have the right to exercise rights under the Act without employer reprisal.
- Employers must deduct and remit association dues if requested by an association.
- Firefighters may be exempt from joining an association or paying dues for religious reasons.
- Employers are prohibited from discouraging or preventing workers from filing claims for benefits.
- The Board's powers to investigate and enforce provisions related to claim suppression are expanded.
- The maximum penalty for certain offences under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, is increased.
- The Act received Royal Assent on December 10, 2015.
- Most provisions of the Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent.
- Schedule 2 of the Act, which amends the Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act, 1997, came into force six months after Royal Assent.
- Schedule 1 of the Act, amending the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997, came into force on the day of Royal Assent.
- The maximum penalty for certain offences under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, is increased to $500,000.
- Provisions for the deduction and remittance of association dues are introduced for firefighters.
- The Act allows for the determination of average earnings for death benefits, which could impact the amount paid.
- Contravention of the prohibition against discouraging claims may result in an administrative penalty payable to the Board.
- Contravention of section 22.1 of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, is an offence.
- The maximum penalty for an offence under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, is increased to $500,000 for a person who is not an individual.
- The specific 'prescribed percentage' of employees required for the new bargaining agent determination rule under the Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act, 1997, is not defined in the provided text and would likely be set by regulation.
- The exact 'prescribed amount' for administrative penalties under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, is not specified and would likely be set by regulation.
- The bill text does not specify the exact date or procedure for the proclamation of certain provisions, only that they can come into force on a day named by proclamation.
- The specific functions of the Fair Practices Commissioner are to be specified by the board of directors of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.
Introduces new rules on unfair labour practices, allows for the deduction and remittance of association dues, permits religious exemptions from joining associations or paying dues, and modifies rules for enforcing arbitration decisions. It also adds provisions for expedited arbitration and clarifies the definition of 'Minister'.
Source: Schedule 1
Adds a new exception to the requirement for a representation vote when a single bargaining agent already represents more than 60% of employees in a bargaining unit.
Source: Schedule 2
Prohibits employers from taking actions to discourage workers from filing claims for benefits, adds provisions for determining average earnings for death benefits, increases the maximum penalty for certain offences from $100,000 to $500,000, and establishes the role of a Fair Practices Commissioner as an ombudsman for the Board.
Source: Schedule 3
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