Changes to Ontario employment legislation coming this summer

Last year, we wrote about upcoming changes to Ontario employment legislation scheduled to take effect this summer. Those changes include information that employers must provide to new employees and new obligations with respect to digital platform workers. Below is a quick recap of the changes to help you get ready for the summer.

New long-term illness leave

Starting June 19, 2025, Ontario employers must provide long-term illness leave to any employee who has been employed for at least 13 consecutive weeks. The maximum entitlement to long-term illness leave is 27 weeks in a 52-week period. In order to determine whether to grant such leave, employers will be allowed to request a certificate from a qualified health practitioner certifying that the employee has a serious medical condition and setting out the period of leave. For clarity, the prohibition against requesting a certificate in respect of the 3-day statutory entitlement to unpaid sick leave remains in place.

Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022

Starting July 1, 2025, operators of digital platforms will have new obligations in respect of workers who perform digital platform work in Ontario. We previously described these new obligations in extensive detail here. Failure to comply with them may result in penalties, fines and quasi-criminal offences.

Employment information requirements

Starting July 1, 2025, provincially regulated employers with 25 or more employees must provide specific information in writing to their Ontario employees before or soon after their first day of work, including:

• the legal name of the employer, as well as any operating or business name of the employer if different from the legal name;
• contact information for the employer, including address, telephone number and one or more contact names;
• a general description of where it is anticipated that the employee will initially perform work;
• the employee’s starting hourly or other wage rate or commission, as applicable;
• the pay period and pay day established by the employer in accordance with the “payment of wages” provision of the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000; and
• a general description of the employee’s initial anticipated hours of work.

The obligation to provide the information set out above will not apply to assignment employees.

If you have any questions about these legislative developments and how they may impact your business, please do not hesitate to contact the authors or any member of our Canadian Employment and Labour Law Service Group, listed here.