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Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018
News CPR
|
March 2018
Getting ready for flex time
Federal, Ontario workers will soon have right to request flexible work arrangements
BY SHEILA BRAWN
IMAGINE BEING able to choose
where and when you work for
your employer or at least having
the right to request changes to
your work arrangements.
Beginning next year, most
employees in Ontario covered
by the Employment Standards
Act, 2000 will have that right.
Federally regulated workers will
also be allowed to request flex-
ible work arrangements once
recently passed amendments to
the Canada Labour Code (CLC)
are implemented.
While many employers al-
ready give their employees
flexibility by allowing them to
work from home and/or choose
their work hours, the legislative
amendments will enshrine in
law the right to request flexibil-
ity. This means that employers
will have to consider employee
requests and will be prohibited
from punishing employees for
asking for flexibility.
The federal changes stem
from a promise that the Liberal
Party of Canada made during the
2015 election campaign to help
federally regulated workers bet-
ter balance work and family.
The Ontario amendments
were part of an overhaul of em-
ployment standards that the
provincial government began
implementing this year. The flex
work provisions will take effect
Jan. 1, 2019.
While Ontario is so far the
only province to add flexible
work arrangements to its em-
ployment standards legislation,
the federal Liberals say they
hope others will follow.
Specific procedures for mak-
ing and reviewing flex work re-
quests will need to be followed.
In Ontario, employees with
at least three months of service
with their employer will be al-
lowed to request changes to their
work schedule or work location.
The request must be in writing.
The CLC will require that
employees be employed by
their employer for a minimum
of six months before requesting
changes to the number of hours
they work, their work schedule,
work location or to any other
terms and conditions that may
be included in CLC regulations.
The request must be in writing.
In the request, federally regu-
lated workers will have to in-
clude their name, the date on
which they make the request, a
description of the change, and
the date they want it to take ef-
fect. If the change is only tempo-
rary, they will have to specify this
and include the date the change
will end.
Federally regulated employees
will also have to explain how they
think the requested change will
affect their employer and how the
employer could manage it.
In Ontario, employers will
be required to discuss requests
with employees and inform
them of their decision "within
a reasonable time" after an em-
ployee makes a request.
Employers in Ontario will be
allowed to fully or partially grant
requests or reject them. If they
deny a request, employers must
tell the employee why. If they ac-
cept all or part of a request, they
must notify employees of when
they will implement the change
and how long it will apply.
The CLC rules are similar, but
more specific. After an employ-
ee makes a request, employers
see ADVANTAGES page 8