On March 9, 2022, Ontario released a Statement from Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and a document called Living with and Managing COVID-19. Both address how Ontario intends to lift COVID-19-related public health and workplace safety measures.
In United Utility Workers’ Association of Canada v Dataco Utility Services Ltd., 2022 CanLII 13414, Arbitrator John Moreau, Q.C., dismissed 11 grievances filed on behalf of 11 service technicians who were suspended indefinitely due to COVID-19.
In Nader v. University Health Network, 2022 ONSC 447, the court examined the language of a secondment agreement and concluded that the plaintiff-employee was not a fixed-term employee of the organization to which he was seconded.
On the heels of the passage of the Working for Workers Act, 2021, Ontario introduced Bill 88, Working for Workers Act, 2022 (Bill 88) on February 28, 2022, and carried it at First Reading.
On February 25, 2022, Ontario filed Regulation 99/22 and Regulation 100/22, which provide that, effective March 1, 2022, all of Ontario will move to the Roadmap Exit Step, as amended.
Ontario announced that later this month, in an effort to protect the privacy of employees, it will be the first province to introduce legislation requiring employers to tell their workers if and how they are being monitored electronically.
On February 18, 2022, Ontario’s Your guide to the Employment Standards Act was updated to include two new chapters that provide guidance on recent amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA).
In Power Workers’ Union v Elexicon Energy Inc., 2022 CanLII 7228 (ON LA), a union challenged the reasonableness of an electricity distribution company’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.
Ontario has announced that with key public health and health system indicators improving and the peak of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 behind us, it will be easing public health measures sooner than anticipated.