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: Thoughts from a Management Lawyer

Ontario Proposes the Open For Business Act

By Michael Fitzgibbon

On May 17, the Open for Business Act was introduced in the Legislature. 

Through this broad and all-encompassing Bill, the Ministry of Labour is proposing amendments to, among other things, the Employment Standards Act, 2000 that would:

• Allow the Director of Employment Standards to require claimants to provide specific information and let their employer know about their Employment Standards complaint before the claim is assigned to an officer.
• Authorize employment standards officers to attempt settlements of complaints.
• Allow officers to make decisions on claims when parties fail to attend decision-making meetings or provide evidence on time.

These initiatives include:

• Launching a task force in August 2010 to eliminate the backlog of 14,000 claims in two years.
• The new online severance pay decision tool for employers and employees.
• The future launch of a termination of employment/temporary layoff tool that determines when a layoff becomes a termination, the termination date and any termination pay owing.

There are some significant amendments set out in the Bill that, if passed, will make the somewhat delay-ridden employment standards system more efficient.

Additional comment can be found at First Reference Talks and in this Backgrounder.

Full post as published by Thoughts from a Management Lawyer on May 18, 2010 (boomark / email).