Toronto 
The Ontario government is proposing updates to employment laws to protect remote workers and ensure they receive the same notice of termination or pay-in-lieu as in-office employees in mass termination situations.
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The proposed changes to the Employment Standards Act (ESA) would broaden the definition of “establishment” to include remote home offices and require employers to provide new hires with written information about their job, such as pay, location, and hours of work.
According to the news release, these changes aim to protect precarious employees and prevent companies from taking advantage of remote workers.
“Whether you commute to work every day or not shouldn’t determine what you are owed. No billion-dollar company should be treating their remote employees as second-class,” said Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development in a statement.
“The future of work is here, and our government will continue to lead the country in ensuring workers have the protections they need to find better jobs and earn bigger paycheques in the 21st century economy.”
Under the ESA, an employee who is terminated after five years of service is entitled to five weeks of paid notice or pay-in-lieu under individual termination rules, but in a mass termination situation, an employee could be entitled to eight, 12, or 16 weeks’ notice, depending on the number of employees terminated.
The proposed changes would apply the same enhanced notice to remote workers as in-office workers.
The government is also introducing additional supports to embrace the future of work as part of the Working for Workers Acts, 2021 and 2022.
