Bill 88 explained in plain English
Working for Workers Act, 2022
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 42nd 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
The Working for Workers Act, 2022, establishes new rights for digital platform workers and enhances protections for various workers by amending employment standards, professional access, and occupational health and safety laws.
Bill 88, also known as the Working for Workers Act, 2022, introduces new rights and protections for workers in Ontario. It enacts the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022, providing specific rights for gig economy workers. Additionally, it amends existing legislation, including the Employment Standards Act, 2000, the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006, and the Occupational Health and Safety Act, to address issues such as electronic monitoring policies, timelines for professional registration, and workplace safety measures like naloxone kits. The Act aims to improve working conditions and clarify responsibilities for employers and workers.
- Establishes new rights for digital platform workers, including rights to information, pay, minimum wage, notice of removal, dispute resolution in Ontario, and protection against reprisal.
- Amends the Employment Standards Act, 2000, to exempt certain business and information technology consultants, and to require employers with 25 or more employees to have a written policy on electronic monitoring of employees.
- Amends the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006, to set timelines for regulated professions to respond to applications from domestic labour mobility applicants.
- Amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act, to require employers to provide naloxone kits in certain circumstances and increases fines for contraventions under this Act.
- Increases the maximum fines for contraventions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act for corporations, directors, and officers.
- Extends the limitation period for prosecuting offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act from one year to two years.
- Digital platform workers (e.g., ride-share, delivery, courier services)
- Employers (generally, and specifically those with 25 or more employees for electronic monitoring policies)
- Business and information technology consultants
- Regulated professions and their applicants
- Employers in relation to workplace safety and naloxone kits
- Directors and officers of corporations
- Workers generally
- Digital platform workers have the right to information about their pay, tips, work assignments, and performance ratings.
- Digital platform workers have the right to recurring pay periods and pay days, and to be paid at least minimum wage.
- Digital platform workers have the right to notice before removal from a platform and to have disputes resolved in Ontario.
- Employers with 25 or more employees must have a written policy on electronic monitoring of employees.
- Employers must provide naloxone kits and comply with related training requirements if there's a risk of opioid overdose in the workplace.
- Regulated professions must adhere to new timelines when processing applications from domestic labour mobility applicants.
- The Act generally came into force on the day it received Royal Assent (April 11, 2022), except for specific provisions.
- Amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000, regarding business and IT consultants, and the definitions in subsection 1(1) of that Act, came into force on January 1, 2023.
- Certain provisions of Schedule 3 (Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006) came into force on a day named by proclamation.
- Sections 2 to 4 of Schedule 4 (Occupational Health and Safety Act) came into force on the later of July 1, 2022, and the day the Act received Royal Assent.
- Sections 1 and 5 of Schedule 4 came into force on a day named by proclamation.
- The Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022, came into force on a day named by proclamation.
- Maximum fines for contraventions under the Occupational Health and Safety Act are increased: from $100,000 to $500,000 for individuals, and from $100,000 to $1,500,000 for corporations.
- Directors and officers of corporations convicted of certain offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act face fines of up to $1,500,000.
- The Act establishes mechanisms for collecting amounts owing to digital platform workers, including potential administrative costs and collector fees.
- Contraventions of the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022, can lead to orders for payment, compensation, or reinstatement, and may result in fines or imprisonment for individuals and fines for corporations.
- Failure to comply with requirements under the Occupational Health and Safety Act can result in significantly increased fines.
- Penalties for offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act can be increased based on aggravating factors, such as causing death or serious injury, recklessness, or prior convictions.
- The Act allows for the publication of names of persons convicted of offences.
- The precise definitions of "digital platform," "digital platform work," and "operator" are subject to regulations, meaning their scope may be further defined.
- The application of the Digital Platform Workers' Rights Act, 2022, to certain workers or circumstances may be excluded by regulation.
- The specific requirements for naloxone kits and related training under the Occupational Health and Safety Act are subject to regulations ('prescribed circumstances' and 'prescribed requirements').
- The exemption process for regulated professions from certain timelines under the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006, is governed by regulations.
- The specific amount for minimum hourly pay for consultants to be exempt from the Employment Standards Act, 2000, is subject to future prescribed amounts.
This new Act establishes specific rights for workers who perform digital platform work, covering areas like pay, information, notice periods, and dispute resolution. It also sets out rules for record-keeping, director liability, and enforcement.
Source: SCHEDULE 1
This Act is amended to clarify that it does not apply to certain business and information technology consultants. It also introduces a new requirement for employers with 25 or more employees to have a written policy regarding the electronic monitoring of their employees.
Source: SCHEDULE 2
This Act is changed to establish time limits within which regulated professions must respond to applications from individuals seeking registration who are already registered in the same profession in another Canadian province or territory (domestic labour mobility applicants).
Source: SCHEDULE 3
This Act is amended to require employers to provide naloxone kits in workplaces where there's a risk of an opioid overdose. It also significantly increases the maximum fines for convictions under this Act for corporations, directors, and officers, and extends the prosecution limitation period.
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