Summary#

The official short title is the Working for Workers Six Act, 2024. It amends six existing Ontario laws and creates the Skilled Trades Week Act, 2024. Its stated goals include supporting workers and families, growing the skilled trades workforce and strengthening protections for first responders; these are goals, not guaranteed results.

• Employees who meet the rules gain up to 16 weeks of unpaid leave after a child is placed with them through adoption or surrogacy, and up to 27 weeks of unpaid leave for a serious medical condition.
• Drivers must slow down and proceed with caution near certain stopped vehicles, including work-related vehicles with flashing amber lights. On roads with at least two lanes in that direction, they must move over if it is safe.
• Employers gain new duties on the fit and suitability of personal protective equipment. The bill also gives officials new training, committee and information powers, and sets a minimum fine for some repeat workplace-safety offences.
• Immigration officials gain new powers and rules to address false claims about eligibility. The bill also sets standards for representatives and allows longer or permanent bans in some cases.
• The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board must recognize specified cancer claims for qualifying firefighters and fire investigators under a presumption, and may have to make certain payments to municipal employers from a surplus.
• The new law proclaims the first full week of November as Skilled Trades Week each year. Some provisions require a later proclamation to start; the supplied material does not give those dates.

What it means for you#

• Employees and families: An employee with at least 13 weeks with an employer may take up to 16 weeks of unpaid leave for a qualifying child placement. The total for one child is 16 weeks across one or more employees. The leave must be taken in one period, and notice and timing rules apply. The bill also provides up to 27 weeks of unpaid leave for an employee with at least 13 consecutive weeks of service who cannot work because of a serious medical condition. A qualified health practitioner must certify the condition and the period off work.
• Drivers: The new slow-down and move-over duties include work-related vehicles with flashing amber lights. They do not apply to such vehicles in certain construction zones where a speed limit is in effect. A first offence carries a fine of $400 to $2,000; a later offence within five years carries a fine of $1,000 to $4,000, possible jail time of up to six months, or both. A court may also suspend a driver’s licence for up to two years.
• Employers and workers: Employers must ensure protective clothing and equipment provided, worn or used fits properly and is suitable for the circumstances. The bill does not itself set the detailed assessment rules; regulations may do that. For some repeat offences that cause a worker’s death or serious injury, a corporation’s minimum fine is $500,000 and the maximum is $2 million.
• Firefighters and fire investigators: A presumption that kidney or colorectal cancer is work-related applies only to workers in prescribed categories who meet a 10-year service threshold. The presumption can be rebutted.
• Immigration representatives and applicants: Representatives must follow standards that the Minister may prescribe. False claims about meeting prescribed approval criteria are prohibited. The Minister or director may impose bans; some representative bans can be permanent. The bill does not directly change immigration approval criteria.
• General public: The bill does not create a new independent agency or a general new public service.

Money#

No cost information is in the available material.

• The bill requires unpaid leave, but gives no estimate of any employer costs, such as arranging cover for absent employees.
• The Board must make certain payments to eligible municipal employers if the insurance fund is above a prescribed threshold and other conditions are met. No payment estimate is provided.
• The bill raises the maximum corporate workplace-safety fine to $2 million and sets a $500,000 minimum for certain repeat offences. Fines depend on convictions.

What is unclear#

• Several changes start only on a date set by proclamation. The supplied material does not say when those provisions start.
• The bill lets regulations define “work-related vehicle” and prescribe some other rules. The supplied material does not say which vehicles or additional events will be covered.
• The exact categories of firefighters and fire investigators eligible for the cancer presumptions depend on regulations. The supplied material does not list them.
• The bill does not set detailed rules for assessing protective equipment or for standards that immigration representatives must follow.
• The supplied material does not include the full versions of the laws being amended. I could not verify every change against current law or confirm how the amendments interact with existing programs.

Case for#

• A possible argument for the leave provisions is that they protect a worker’s job while the worker handles a child placement or a serious medical condition, without requiring the employer to pay wages during the leave.
• The move-over rule could reduce the risk of collisions or harm to people outside stopped work-related vehicles.
• Clearer fit requirements and stronger penalties could encourage employers to provide suitable protective equipment and take workplace safety seriously.
• The cancer presumption could make it easier for eligible first responders to have specified cancers treated as work-related, while allowing contrary evidence.
• Recognizing an equivalent out-of-province training program could give workers another route to meet Ontario training requirements.

Case against#

• The new leaves are unpaid, so workers who cannot afford time without wages may not be able to use them.
• Some important details are left to future regulations or decisions, including which vehicles count as work-related and how equipment assessments will work.
• The bill gives officials broad powers over training policies, committee structure, personal information and immigration bans. The supplied material does not set out all the procedures or safeguards for using those powers.
• The municipal payments depend on fund levels and other conditions. The bill does not provide an estimate of the payments or explain how often they may be made.