As the deadline for employers to have a Disconnecting from Work Policy created and issued to employees is fast-approaching (June 2, 2022), we wanted to take a moment to remind you to be sure you are currently working towards implementing this policy, if you haven’t already. By way of reminder, you will need to have this policy in place if you operate in Ontario and have 25 or more employees as of January 1, 2022.
We have also made a few revisions to our original policy. As the Ontario government has not, to date, provided regulations clarifying or enhancing the requirements, we felt it was necessary to make some slight changes to the policy to align with the general guidelines provided by the Ontario Ministry of Labour and to ensure that the policies capture some of the issues you have raised over the last few months.
Consequently, we have made some deletions (from the definition) and some language clarifying that in an emergency an employee should respond (for safety and business continuity purposes), that hours of work may change based on an agreement (such as agreeing to work overtime), and that some employment arrangements do involve ‘after-hours’ work, and we have added a table where you can track any amendments you make to the policy as required under the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000.
For those of you who had previously requested the policy, we have already sent you the revised version. However, if we haven’t reached out to you yet or you wish to receive a copy of the policy, please reach out to ClientCare. Note you may not be eligible for the policy depending on your current service level.
If you have created your own policy or have modified our version, please feel free to send it over to ClientCare to have that reviewed.
We will of course keep you updated if regulations are subsequently produced.
If you have any questions about the above, please feel free to reach out to speak with an e2r™ Advisor.