Purpose: Demonstrate your ability to research relevant provisions of the Employment Standards Act, understand essential components of employment contracts in Ontario, and convey this information for a client. Additionally, familiarize yourself with case law research using CanLii to provide advice grounded in precedent.

General Questions on the ESA:

Briefly explain the purpose and importance of the Employment Standards Act in Ontario.

Identify and explain three rights of employees under the ESA related to termination.

Describe two common misconceptions employers might have about overtime provisions in the ESA. How would you correct these misconceptions to a client?

Highlight three essential components of employment contracts in Ontario, explaining their significance.

Research Task: Recent Changes to the ESA

Tips or other gratuities methods of payment

Beginning June 21, 2024, employers will be required to pay tips or other gratuities by either:

• cash
• cheque
• direct deposit

If payment is by cash or cheque, the employee must be paid the tips or other gratuities at the workplace or at some other place agreed to electronically or in writing by the employee.

If payment is made by direct deposit, the account must be selected by the employee and be in the employee's name. Nobody other than the employee can have access to the account, unless the employee has authorized it.

The requirement that the employee select the account means the employee must decide which account to use, and the employer cannot restrict an employee's selection by, for example, requiring the employee to use an account at a particular financial institution.

For payments that are to be made after June 20, 2024, an employee has the right to select the account where their tips are to be deposited. If an employer previously restricted an employee's account selection for example, by requiring them to use an account at a particular financial institution it is the employer's responsibility to confirm the employee's selection of their desired account before they make the next payment after June 20, 2024. An employee can also notify their employer that they want their tips deposited to a different account and, when that happens, the employer must make the change.

or

Mass termination

Effective October 26, 2023, in cases of mass termination (when an employer terminates the employment of 50 or more employees at its establishment within a 4-week period), the term "establishment" includes an employee's home, but only if the employee works from home and does not work at any other location where the employer carries on business.

This requires that employees who work exclusively remotely be considered for inclusion in the count when determining whether 50 or more employees have been terminated.

Note that where an employee performs work both from their home and from another location where the employer carries on business (for example, an office), their home is not included in the definition of "establishment". Instead, the employee is considered to have a connection to the office location and, therefore, for the purpose of mass termination, the employee is included with respect to that office location.

In the event of mass termination, on the first day of the notice period the employer must provide the prescribed information in a form approved by the Director of Employment Standards to each of the affected employees.

This new requirement applies along with the existing requirements, which are to:

• provide employees with individual notices of termination
• submit Form 1 (Notice of termination of employment) to the Director of Employment Standards
• post a copy of the Form 1 in the workplace where it will come to the attention of the employees it affects

choose one of these and explain

Recent Amendment

Using CanLii or other reliable sources, identify and explain a recent amendment or change to the ESA in the past year. How does this change impact employers and employees?

Case Law Review

Locate an employment law case from Ontario related to either the ESA or employment contract terms. To qualify as a case for review in this assignment, the case must:

• Originate in ONTARIO.
• Be about disputes between an employee and employer concerning the ESA or employment contract terms.
• Not be a procedural law dispute (it has to consider the merits, not issues relating to delay, evidence, etc).
• Come from a court or a tribunal.

Provide the following information

1. Full case citation
2. Name of Employer and Employee
3. Short summary of relevant facts
4. Outcome of the case - who won and why (including the analysis applied)?

Provided specific case to review

Waksdale v. Swegon North America Inc., 2020 ONCA 391 (CanLII

Desboro Tavern v. Lee, 2000 CanLII 10893 (ON LRB)