Changes to Ontario employment legislation coming this summer

At a glance

• Starting 19 June 2025, employees with at least 13 weeks of service are entitled to up to 27 weeks of unpaid leave for serious medical conditions, with medical certification required.
• As of 1 July 2025, digital platform operators must comply with new legal obligations regarding worker rights, with penalties for non-compliance.
• Also from 1 July 2025, employers with 25+ employees must provide key job details in writing to new hires before or shortly after their first day, including wage, hours, and employer contact info.

Last year, we wrote about upcoming changes to Ontario employment legislation scheduled to take effect this summer. Those changes include information that employers must provide to new employees and new obligations with respect to digital platform workers. Below is a quick recap of the changes to help you get ready for the summer.

New long-term illness leave

Starting 19 June 2025, Ontario employers must provide long-term illness leave to any employee who has been employed for at least 13 consecutive weeks. The maximum entitlement to long-term illness leave is 27 weeks in a 52-week period. To determine whether to grant such leave, employers will be allowed to request a certificate from a qualified health practitioner certifying that the employee has a serious medical condition and setting out the period of leave. For clarity, the prohibition against requesting a certificate in respect of the three-day statutory entitlement to unpaid sick leave remains in place.

Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act 2022

Starting 1 July 2025, operators of digital platforms will have new obligations in respect of workers who perform digital platform work in Ontario. We previously described these new obligations in extensive detail here. Failure to comply with them may result in penalties, fines and quasi-criminal offences.

Employment information requirements

Starting 1 July 2025, provincially regulated employers with 25 or more employees must provide specific information in writing to their Ontario employees before or soon after their first day of work, including:

• the legal name of the employer, as well as any operating or business name of the employer if different from the legal name;
• contact information for the employer, including address, telephone number and one or more contact names;
• a general description of where it is anticipated that the employee will initially perform work;
• the employee’s starting hourly or other wage rate or commission, as applicable;
• the pay period and pay day established by the employer in accordance with the 'payment of wages' provision of the Ontario Employment Standards Act 2000; and
• a general description of the employee’s initial anticipated hours of work.

The obligation to provide the information set out above will not apply to assignment employees.

If you have any questions about these legislative developments and how they may impact your business, please do not hesitate to contact the authors or any member of our Canadian Employment and Labour Law Service Group, listed here.