Ontario’s recent enactment of the Working for Workers Five Act, 2024 introduces several significant changes aimed at enhancing worker protections, supporting frontline staff, and encouraging more women to enter the skilled trades.1,2 As an employer, it is essential to understand these changes and their implications.
Key changes in the Act
The new legislation includes measures such as:
- Putting patients before paperwork and reducing the paperwork burden for healthcare professionals by prohibiting employers from requiring a sick note3 from a medical professional for a worker’s job-protected sick leave under the Employment Standards Act (ESA).
- Lowering the required duration of service for presumptive WSIB coverage for primary-site skin cancer from 20 years to 10 years for firefighters.4
- Ensuring wildland firefighters and investigators receive the same coverage for occupational cancers, heart injuries, and PTSD as municipal firefighters.5
- Mandating menstrual products on larger construction sites and cracking down on virtual harassment to support women in the trades.6
- Increasing fines for violations of the Employment Standards Act and requiring employers to disclose the existence of vacancies in job postings.7
Impact on absenteeism and disability claims
Despite these comprehensive changes, the core processes for handling disability claims should remain unaffected. Here’s why:
- Consistency in coverage: The Act’s provisions primarily focus on expanding protections and benefits for specific worker groups, such as firefighters and women in trades. These changes do not alter the fundamental criteria or processes for evaluating and approving disability claims.
- Regulatory compliance: As a disability claim provider, our operations are governed by established regulations and standards that ensure fair and consistent claim handling. The new Act does not introduce changes that would disrupt this framework.
- Enhanced worker protections: The Act’s emphasis on worker safety and health, such as improved coverage for occupational diseases and injuries, aligns with our commitment to supporting workers. These enhancements may lead to a more comprehensive understanding of workplace risks.
- Administrative procedures: The Act introduces new requirements for employers, such as maintaining clean and sanitary washrooms and prohibiting sick notes for certain leave entitlements.8,9
- Sick leave: The Act introduces regulations preventing employers from requiring a sick-note from a medical professional for a job-protected sick leave under the ESA. Most employees in Ontario are now entitled to up to three sick leave days of unpaid job-protected leave each calendar year, once they have worked for an employer for at least two consecutive weeks. An employee who missed part of a day to take the leave would be entitled to any wages they actually earned while working. Employers are not prevented from asking for sick-notes unless under reasonable circumstances.
- As per the bill, “if an employment contract, including a collective agreement, provides a greater right or benefit than the sick leave standard under the Employment Standards Act (ESA), then the terms of the contract apply instead of the standard” (3 days). This means that if an employer has a disability policy, often the policy provisions would apply before the ESA standards.
- As an employer you still have the right to ask for medical notes for reasonable circumstances. “….reasonable in the circumstances will depend on all of the facts of the situation, such as the duration of the leave, whether there is a pattern of absences, whether any evidence is available and the cost of the evidence.
- More information can be found here: https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/sick-leave.
In conclusion, Ontario’s Working for Workers Five Act, 2024, represents a significant step forward in worker protections and support and introduces several changes required as an employer. As an absence and disability service provider we recognize these changes, but they do not change the overall framework or requirements of processing or managing a disability claim.
Related news
Prince Edward Island has recently introduced a new, but amended, sick leave legislation which took effect October 1st 2024. The act gives workers one day of paid sick leave after 12 months of employment at the same workplace, two paid days after 24 months, and three paid days after 36 months.
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