Ontario proposes ‘tightening’ of laws around mass layoffs

The Ontario government says it is proposing “tightening” rules around mass layoffs in the province, with changes aimed at protecting remote workers.

The government said in a statement Monday that under the proposed changes, employees who solely work from home would be eligible for the same eight-week minimum notice of termination or pay-in-lieu as those who work in-person.

“Whether you commute to work every day or not shouldn’t determine what you are owed,” Labour Minister Monte McNaughton said.

“No billion-dollar company should be treating their remote employees as second-class.”

In a follow-up statement, the Ministry of Labour said within the past eight months, there have been “multiple instances of companies laying off employees where the companies did not include employees in Ontario who solely worked remotely as part of the mass termination provisions.”

“These employees may have been included if they worked in the workplace,” the ministry said.

The province noted that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the largest shift to remote work in history, with around 2.2 million people working from home in the fourth quarter of 2022, 1.4 million of whom were doing so on an exclusive basis and 800,000 in a hybrid situation.

The Ontario Employment Standards Act’s rules for mass layoffs apply when 50 or more employees are let go at an establishment within a four-week period, the province said.

Employees who are laid off could be entitled to eight, 12 or 16 weeks’ notice, depending on the number of employees who are let go.

“The proposed changes, if passed, would broaden the definition of ‘establishment’ to include employees’ remote home offices, making employees who solely work remotely from home eligible to received enhanced notice,” the province said.

“Generally, under the ESA, an employee who is terminated after five years of service would be entitled to five weeks of paid notice or pay-in-lieu under individual termination rules, but if that employee is one of 100 employees terminated at an employer’s establishment within a four-week period, then that employee would be entitled to eight weeks of paid notice or pay-in-lieu.”