Upcoming Changes to Employment Legislation for Ontario-Based and Federally Regulated Employers

December 5, 2025

Ontario Updates

Provincially regulated employers with operations in Ontario should be aware of the following upcoming and proposed amendments to the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA).

Recent Changes to the ESA

On November 27, 2025, Ontario Bill 30, Working for Workers Seven Act, 2025, received royal assent, and the following changes to the ESA came into force.

Job-Seeking Leave

Under this new provision of the ESA, employees are entitled to three days of unpaid leave if they receive notice of mass termination. Mass termination occurs when 50 or more employees are terminated in the same four-week period. The purpose of this leave is to help employees engage in job searching, interviewing and training. Employers are entitled to request reasonable evidence about an employee’s entitlement to this leave.

Extended Temporary Layoffs

Under this amendment to the ESA, extended layoffs may be permissible in certain circumstances. The layoff may be 35 or more weeks in any period of 52 consecutive weeks, but not 52 or more weeks in any period of 78 consecutive weeks, so long as:

The employer and employee enter into an agreement for such an extended layoff
The employer recalls the employee within the time set out in the agreement
The employer receives approval for the extended layoff from the Director of Employment Standards

Upcoming Changes to the ESA

Reporting Fraudulent Job Posts

Under this new provision of the ESA, coming into effect January 1, 2026, an operator of a “job posting platform” will be required to:

Have a procedure in place for users of the platform to report fraudulent publicly advertised job postings
Adopt a written policy that includes information about how the operator will address fraudulent publicly advertised job postings

A “job posting platform” means an online platform that displays publicly advertised job postings but does not include: (a) an online platform operated by an employer that only advertises publicly advertised job postings for positions with the employer, or (b) an online platform that meets such criteria as may be prescribed.

Job Postings

Key amendments to the ESA regarding publicly advertised job postings will take effect January 1, 2026. These requirements will apply to Ontario employers who employ 25 or more employees on the day the publicly advertised job posting is posted.

Pursuant to a new ESA regulation (O. Reg. 476/24), “publicly advertised job posting” is defined as an external job posting that an employer or a person acting on behalf of an employer advertises to the general public in any manner. However, it does not include:

A general recruitment campaign that does not advertise a specific position
A general “help wanted” sign that does not advertise a specific position
A posting for a position that is restricted to existing employees of the employer
A posting for a position for which work is to be:
- Performed outside Ontario
- Performed outside Ontario and in Ontario and the work performed outside Ontario is not a continuation of work performed in Ontario

In particular, these ESA amendments and regulations will require that for any publicly advertised job posting, an employer must:

Include the expected compensation for a position or the range of expected compensation for a position (the range of compensation in a job posting cannot exceed C$50,000 annually). However, note that job postings for positions where the expected compensation is equivalent to (or the compensation range ends with) an amount greater than C$200,000 annually are exempt from this requirement
Disclose the use of artificial intelligence in screening, assessing or selecting applicants for a position
Include a statement disclosing whether the job posting is for an existing vacancy
Retain copies of every publicly advertised job posting for three years after the posting is taken down

Employers are prohibited from including any requirements related to Canadian experience in any publicly advertised job posting or associated application form.

Furthermore, where an employer interviews an applicant for a publicly advertised job posting, the employer must inform the applicant whether a hiring decision has been made in respect of the position. Such information must be provided in person, in writing or electronically within 45 days after the date of the interview (or date of the last interview, if there are multiple interviews).

Placement of a Child Leave

Bill 229, the Working for Workers Six Act, introduced Placement of a Child Leave. This section will come into force on a day to be proclaimed by the Lieutenant Governor.

Under this new leave, an employee who has been employed by an employer for at least 13 weeks is entitled to a leave of absence without pay because of a placement. A placement is defined to mean:

The placement of a child into an employee’s custody, care and control for the first time for the purposes of adoption
The arrival of a child into an employee’s custody, care and control for the first time where the person who gave birth to the child is a surrogate
The occurrence of any other prescribed event or prescribed circumstances

The total amount of leave that may be taken by an employee in respect of a child is 16 weeks. Notably, an employer may require an employee who takes this form of leave to provide evidence reasonable in the circumstances of the employee’s entitlement to the leave.

Federal Updates

Federally regulated employers should be aware of the following upcoming amendments to the Canada Labour Code.

Upcoming Changes to the Canada Labour Code

Leave Related to Pregnancy Loss

Leave Related to Pregnancy Loss is to be added to the Canada Labour Code. This change will come into force on December 12, 2025. An employee will be eligible for this leave of absence if:

Their pregnancy does not result in a live birth
The pregnancy of their spouse or common-law partner does not result in a live birth
They intended to be the legal parents of the child that would have been born had another person’s pregnancy resulted in a live birth

An eligible employee should be granted a leave of absence up to:

Eight weeks, if the pregnancy is a stillbirth
Three days, in any other case

The period during which an employee may take this leave of absence should begin on the day on which the pregnancy does not result in a live birth and should end 26 weeks after that day. If an employee has completed three consecutive months of continuous employment with their employer, the employee is entitled to the first three days of leave with pay at their regular rate of wages for their normal hours of work and such pay should be considered to be wages.

The leave of absence may be taken in one or two periods. However, an employer may require that each period of leave be not less than one day’s duration.

Disconnecting From Work Policy

Under the Canada Labour Code, employers will soon be required to have a disconnecting from work policy. There is no fixed coming into force date for this provision, though the expectation is that it will come into force in 2025.

On or before the first anniversary of the coming into force date, an employer will be required to create a policy that includes the following elements:

A general rule respecting work-related communication outside of scheduled hours of work, including the employer’s expectations and any opportunity for employees to disconnect from means of communication
Any exceptions to the rule and their underlying rationale
The effective date of the policy
Any other elements that may be prescribed by regulation

If an employee and employer subject to a collective agreement agree in writing and that agreement meets the requirements outlined above, then this provision will not apply with respect to those employees.

In addition, employers will be required to: