Bill 12 explained in plain English
Protecting Employees' Tips 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, passed in 2015, amends the Employment Standards Act, 2000, to prohibit employers from improperly withholding or deducting employee tips and gratuities, with specific rules for redistribution and collective agreements.
The Protecting Employees' Tips Act, 2015, amends the Employment Standards Act, 2000. It clarifies rules around employee tips and gratuities. The Act prohibits employers from withholding, deducting, or causing employees to return tips, except as permitted. It defines what constitutes a tip or gratuity, including voluntary payments from customers and service charges intended for employees. The Act allows employers to collect and redistribute tips among employees, but employers, directors, or shareholders generally cannot share in these redistributed tips, unless they perform substantially the same work as the employees receiving the tips. Special rules apply to collective agreements in effect when the Act came into force.
- Prohibits employers from withholding or deducting tips and other gratuities from employees.
- Prohibits employers from causing employees to return tips or gratuities, except as authorized.
- Defines "tip or other gratuity" to include voluntary payments from customers and certain service charges.
- Allows employers to collect and redistribute tips among employees.
- Generally prohibits employers, directors, or shareholders from sharing in redistributed tips, with exceptions for those who perform similar work to employees.
- Establishes rules for how tips are treated under existing collective agreements and new or renewed agreements.
- Specifies that if an employer contravenes the rules on withholding or deducting tips, the amount is considered a debt owed to the employee, enforceable as wages.
- Employees who receive tips or other gratuities.
- Employers who employ individuals receiving tips or other gratuities.
- Directors and shareholders of employers.
- Individuals covered by collective agreements concerning tips or gratuities.
- Employees have the right to keep tips and gratuities, subject to the rules in the Act.
- Employers have an obligation not to withhold, deduct, or cause the return of tips or gratuities, except as permitted.
- Employers have an obligation to redistribute tips among employees if they choose to collect and pool them, and to comply with rules regarding who can share in these tips.
- The Act received Royal Assent on December 10, 2015.
- The Act came into force six months after receiving Royal Assent.
- If an employer withholds, deducts, returns, or gives tips or other gratuities in contravention of the Act, the amount is considered a debt owing to the employee.
- This debt is enforceable under the Employment Standards Act, 2000, as if it were wages owing to the employee.
- The definition of 'tip or other gratuity' includes 'such other payments as may be prescribed' and excludes 'such payments as may be prescribed' and certain prescribed charges related to the method of payment, indicating that further regulations may specify these details.
- The exceptions for employers, directors, or shareholders sharing in redistributed tips depend on them regularly performing 'to a substantial degree the same work performed by' certain employees, which could be subject to interpretation.
- The application of rules to collective agreements is specified, but the exact interpretation of 'conflict' and 'prevails' in certain transitional situations might require further clarification.
- The Act does not specify the exact date of Royal Assent, but the provided source indicates it as December 10, 2015.
Adds Part V.1, which outlines rules and prohibitions regarding employee tips and other gratuities, including definitions, employer obligations, and exceptions.
Source: Section 1
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 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
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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.
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