Ontario Employment and Pensions Law 2025 Wrap-Up and What to Expect in 2026

As we enter the opening days of 2026, here are some recent changes to employment and pensions law, as well as some upcoming developments, about which provincially-regulated and federally-regulated employers in Ontario should be aware.

Other jurisdictions were also active in implementing changes as of January 1, 2026, including Alberta (which increased the maximum duration of its statutory sick leave from 16 to 27 weeks), British Columbia (which increased the maximum penalties under its Workers Compensation Act), Nova Scotia (which announced two minimum wage increases across 2026), and Saskatchewan (which made a number of changes including with respect to group terminations, reprisals, scheduling agreements, rest periods, and leaves of absence), so employers should ensure that they are aware of recent and upcoming developments in all provinces where they employ personnel.

Ontario Provincially-Regulated Employers

More Recent Changes in the Law:

Information in Job Postings. New rules came into effect on January 1, 2026 for employers who publicly advertise job postings for positions in Ontario. The rules apply to employers that employ 25 or more employees on the day the posting is posted. The rules include:

• a requirement to include expected compensation for the role;
• a requirement to disclose whether artificial intelligence will be used as part of the hiring process;
• a prohibition against a job posting or associated application form including any requirements related to Canadian work experience;
• a requirement to disclose whether the posting is for an existing vacancy or not; and
• a requirement to update applicants who are interviewed on whether a hiring decision has been made for that posting within 45 days of their last interview.

We previously wrote about these requirements in greater detail here.

Long-Term Illness Leave. Commencing June 19, 2025, employees in Ontario have been eligible for an unpaid leave of absence under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”) if both the following criteria are met:

• the employee will not be performing the duties of their position because of a serious medical condition; and
• a qualified health practitioner issues a certificate stating that the employee has a serious medical condition and setting out the period where the employee will not be working because of the serious medical condition.

Whether a medical condition is “serious” is determined by the qualified health practitioner. The certificate need not specify the medical condition but must indicate that the condition is “serious.” A serious medical condition can be chronic or episodic. The maximum single or combined duration of a long-term illness leave is 27 weeks in a 52-week period.

Information to New Hires. Since July 1, 2025, employers with 25 or more employees have been required to provide each new Ontario employee (except assignment employees supplied by a temporary help agency) the following information:

• the legal name of the employer;
• any operating or business name if different from the employer’s legal name;
• contact information for the employer, including address, telephone number, and one or more contact names;
• the employee’s starting hourly or other wage rate, or commission, as applicable;
• the pay period and pay day; and
• a general description of the anticipated initial work location.

This information must be provided in writing prior to the employee’s first day of work or, if not practicable, then as soon as is reasonably possible after the employee’s start date. We previously wrote about this requirement here.

Minimum Wage. Ontario’s minimum wage increased from $17.20 to $17.60 on October 1, 2025.

Job Seeking Leave. Eligible employees in Ontario who have received notice of termination of their employment as part of a mass termination (when an employer terminates 50 or more employees at its establishment within a four-week period) may take up to three days of unpaid leave to engage in activities related to finding new employment, such as job searches, interviews, and training. This change came into effect on November 27, 2025.

Extended Temporary Layoff. The ESA now permits employers and non-unionized employees to agree to temporary layoffs of up to 51 weeks in any period of 78 consecutive weeks. Approval from Ontario’s Director of Employment Standards is required for such agreements. This change came into effect on November 27, 2025. Previously, the maximum layoff period without triggering a termination of employment under the ESA was 34 weeks in a 52-week period.

Health and Safety Administrative Penalties. On November 27, 2025, Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act (“OHSA”) was amended to introduce a framework for administrative penalties. This framework empowers the Province’s health and safety inspectors to impose monetary penalties against employers who have violated OHSA or its regulations or who fail to comply with an applicable order. So far, only one such penalty has been established under the new framework, which addresses violations under O. Reg. 364/25 associated with the procurement of health and safety management systems. We anticipate that further regulations will be introduced or amended to increase the breadth of contraventions under OHSA that may attract administrative penalties and will provide updates as they arise.

Upcoming Changes in the Law:

Placement of a Child Leave. On a date to be proclaimed by the Lieutenant Governor, eligible Ontario employees will be entitled to an unpaid leave of absence under the ESA because of either of the following circumstances:

• the placement of a child into the employee’s custody, care, and control for the first time for the purposes of adoption; or
• the arrival of a child into the employee’s custody, care, and control for the first time where the person who gave birth to the child is a surrogate.

The qualifying employee may start the leave up to six weeks before the expected date of placement, with a total entitlement of 16 weeks in respect of a child.

Jointly Sponsored Pension Plan Conversions. On a date to be proclaimed by the Lieutenant Governor, Ontario’s Pension Benefits Act (“PBA”) will be amended to introduce rules and requirements for converting single employer pension plans to jointly sponsored pension plans. These new provisions address the conversion of a single employer plan that only provides defined contribution benefits, as well as single employer plans that provide both defined contribution and defined benefits. Currently, the PBA only has rules for the conversion of single employer plans that provide defined benefits.

Once in force, these new rules will introduce, among other things, a requirement to consult with any unions or plan member associations, member and beneficiary notice obligations, a requirement to notify the regulator, and a right for members to opt out of a transfer of their pension assets into the new plan.

Ontario provincially-regulated employers should also see “Misclassification of Contractors” below.

Ontario Federally-Regulated Employers

More Recent Changes in the Law:

Pregnancy Loss Leave. On December 12, 2025, the Canada Labour Code (“CLC”) was amended to entitle eligible employees to a leave of absence in either of the following circumstances:

• the employee or the employee’s spouse or common-law partner experiences a pregnancy loss; or
• another person whose pregnancy would have resulted in the employee becoming the child’s legal parent experiences a pregnancy loss.

Eligible employees may take a paid leave of absence from employment of up to three days. If the pregnancy loss is a result of a stillbirth (being a stillbirth that occurs on or after the twentieth week of pregnancy or after the fetus had attained at least 500 g), the employee may take a leave of absence of up to eight weeks, the first three days of which are paid.

Enhanced Bereavement Leave. Effective December 12, 2025, the CLC expanded the bereavement leave entitlement for employees whose child, or their spouse’s or common-law partner’s child, dies. Employees may take a CLC-protected leave of absence of up to eight weeks in such circumstances, an increase from the general ten-day bereavement leave that applies following the death of an immediate family member or the death of a family member in respect of whom the employee was taking compassionate care leave or critical illness leave. The first three days of this leave are paid.

The CLC’s bereavement leave provisions were also amended on the same day to provide protections afforded to other relatively long statutory leaves of absence, including the right to return to the same or a comparable role, continued accrual of pension, health, disability, and seniority benefits, the right to receive notice of training or internal employment opportunities while on leave, and retaliation prohibitions. 

Upcoming Changes in the Law:

Placement of a Child Leave. On a future date to be fixed by Order in Council, the CLC will introduce a new leave for the placement of a child. This leave will entitle eligible employees to a leave of absence of up to 16 weeks for carrying out responsibilities related to a “placement,” which includes the placement of a child into the actual care of an employee for the purposes of adoption or the arrival of a newborn child into the employee’s actual care following a surrogacy.

Misclassification of Contractors. Federal Bill C-15 signals an intention of the current government to strengthen enforcement against treating service providers as independent or dependent contractors when they should be treated as employees. While the CLC already prohibits employers from treating an employee as if they are not an employee, Bill C-15 will, if passed as currently drafted, amend the federal Income Tax Act and Excise Tax Act to permit tax officials to share taxpayer and personal information with the Department of Employment and Social Development for the purpose of enforcing this component of the CLC. Because employment income is subject to federal taxation regardless of whether the employer is federally or provincially regulated, this will also affect Ontario businesses that are not federally regulated.

Non-compliant employers can face regulatory fines, penalties, interest, and be required to make retroactive remittances where an individual is found to have been misclassified. Claims for back pay for overtime, vacation pay, statutory holiday pay, and other ESA entitlements that were denied to misclassified individuals may also follow.

Takeaways for Employers

To ensure compliance and mitigate risk, employers should take the following steps to align themselves with the new rules:

• Ontario employers should review their job advertising, hiring, and onboarding processes to ensure compliance with Ontario’s new rules;
• template employment agreements should be updated to include any information to which new Ontario hires are now entitled that the agreements do not already include;
• employment policies and handbooks that discuss leaves of absence should be updated to refer to the new leaves. Policies addressing CLC bereavement leave should be updated to incorporate the extended leave entitlement for the death of a child and the enhanced overall protections. Once updated, these policies should be made available to the workforce;
• pension plan texts and policies should be reviewed for any required changes to reflect the new and modified leaves of absence;
• employers who wish to have the option to make use of the new extended temporary layoff regime in Ontario should ensure their employment agreements include the right for the employer to implement a temporary layoff; otherwise, implementing layoffs may result in claims for constructive dismissal under the common law; and
• employers should review their classification practices and identify any independent or dependent contractors who may be improperly treated as such instead of as employees. It may be appropriate to transition such individuals into an employment relationship.

Contact Mintz’s Canadian Employment Practice if you require assistance complying with employment and pensions legislation across Canada.

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