Ontario Government Introduces Working for Workers Six Act, 2024

On November 27, 2024, the Ontario government introduced Working for Workers Six Act, 2024.

The proposed legislation seeks to build on the previous five Working for Workers acts, which focused on protecting the health and safety of workers, providing financial relief for workers and businesses, and encouraging more people to enter the skilled trades.

Working for Workers Six Act, 2024, calls for a mandatory minimum fine of $500,000 on businesses that are convicted of repeat offenses under the Occupational Health and Safety Act within a two-year period. In addition, those convicted for serious injury or death could face up to a year in prison, and individuals on corporate boards could be held liable.

Other key aspects of Working for Workers Six Act, 2024 include:

• A new 16-week job-protected parental leave for adoptive parents, and parents through surrogacy.
• A new 27-week job-protected for workers who cannot work due to serious medical conditions, such as cancer. If enacted, Ontario would have the longest leave of this kind in the country.
• Rules that require properly-fitting PPE for women in all sectors, in order to bring more women into the trades.
• A crackdown on bad actors that exploit newcomers and harm workers by introducing new standards, fines, and lifetime bans for fraudulent immigration representatives.

• Expanding certain types of cancer coverage for firefighters and fire investigators to facilitate WSIB claims.

• Increasing safety for roadside workers by expanding existing requirements for drivers to slow down and move over when passing emergency vehicles and tow trucks.

As with all proposed legislation, there is no standard timeline for when Working for Workers Six Act, 2024, will become law. However, as with all five previous editions, the consensus is that it will be relatively swift. For example, Working for Workers Five Act, 2024, had its first reading on May 6, 2024, and received Royal Assent on October 28, 2024. As such, it is likely that the new proposed legislation will be enacted before the Ontario legislature rises for summer break in 2025, which is expected to occur in early June.