Ontario Government Makes Sweeping Changes To The ESA

Friday evening, the Government amended Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000 ("ESA") through Ontario Regulation 228/20 to provide employers with some comfort that they will likely not be found to have constructively dismissed an employee under the ESA if they have had to temporarily reduce their employees' hours and/or wages, or put their employees on unpaid leaves of absences, provided COVID-19 is legitimately cited as the basis for such actions. Every situation, however, needs to be reviewed, as the employee still may have a common law right.

Please see the various sections below.

Subsection 1 – Interpretation and application: The "COVID-19 period", as defined by the Regulation, commences March 1, 2020 and ends six (6) weeks after the COVID-19 emergency declaration ends.