The government of Québec recently passed the Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec (the Act), which strengthens and clarifies the existing mandate to use the French language in the province and requires employers to ensure that all their human resources documentation is available in French.
While most of the provisions of the Act entered into effect in 2022 and June 2023, others will enter into effect on 1 June 2025.
Effective 22 June 2023, Canada has extended the maximum duration of child death and disappearance leave for federally regulated employees. Effective 30 May 2020, Manitoba has increased bereavement leave and added miscarriage leave.
The Canadian government approved Bill C-5 introducing a new federal holiday called the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to commemorate the victims and survivors of the indigenous residential schools. The new federal holiday is observed on 30 September each year, with the first being 30 September 2021.
Beginning last November, the Canadian government introduced legislation to amend the Canada Labour Code. The amendments are scheduled to come into force on 1 December 2022 and will entitle federally regulated private sector employees with up to 10 days of paid medical leave per calendar year.
The Canadian government recently announced an additional employer-paid public holiday on Monday, 19 September 2022, for the mourning of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England.
In an effort to encourage as many people as possible to be vaccinated, the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Colombia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have passed legislation to provide employees with paid leave to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus during working hours.
Update: On 30 March 2022, the British Columbia government passed new amendments to the paid sick leave provisions: Made sick leave available to employees in each calendar year instead of the employment year (marked by the employee’s anniversary date). This […]
The government of Ontario passed the omnibus Bill 27, Working for Workers Act, 2021 (the “Act”), which amends a number of employment-related laws. The most notable changes addressed in this article include the requirement to implement a right to disconnect […]
The Canadian government passed legislation mandating federally regulated employers with a current minimum of 10 employees to proactively establish a pay equity plan identifying and addressing gender pay disparities between men and women in the workplace by 31 August 2024. […]
On 1 January 2019, the government of British Columbia (BC) launched a new Employer Health Tax (EHT) to shift the health care system financial burden from employees to employers. The EHT is a tax levied on an annual payroll for […]