ADVOCACY ALERT: Potential Changes to Ontario's Personal Emergency Leave Provisions Could Have Significant Impact on Your Franchisees
Background
In Ontario, employees who work for employers with at least 50 employees have the right to take personal emergency leave. This means they can take up to 10 days per year of unpaid, job-protected leave due to illness, injury, or other urgent matters. This is in addition to the many other types of leave the law already provides for.
What's changing?
The Ontario government is considering changes to provincial labour legislation through the
Changing Workplaces Review. One option under consideration is to give
all Ontario employees the right to personal emergency leave, regardless of how many employees their employer has.
Potential impact on your franchisees:
Many of your franchisees are small business owners with fewer than 50 employees. If their employees become entitled to personal emergency leave, your franchisees could face increased absenteeism, overtime costs and administrative burden.
What is CFA doing about this?
Earlier this week, CFA met with government and made a formal submission (
read online) outlining our concerns.
Our recommendations to government are:
1. Keep the 50-employee threshold triggering personal emergency leave obligations so that small employers won't face increased financial and administrative burden
2. Provide more clarity on how the threshold is calculated, specifically:
Part-time and casual employees should not be included
Franchisors and franchisees must be considered separately and not treated as common employers
Where a franchisee has multiple locations, the calculation should be based on the number of employees at each location
Personal Emergency Leave is one of many franchise advocacy issues arising from Ontario's Changing Workplaces Review (
click here to learn more).
While submissions on this specific issue were due yesterday, remaining submissions are due October 14. CFA is preparing its next submission and will keep members apprised of further developments and opportunities for involvement.
For more information about CFA's advocacy work on the Ontario Changing Workplaces Review, please contact Samantha Sheppard, Government Relations Specialist, at
ssheppard@cfa.ca or 1-800-665-4232 ext. 230.
Canadian Franchise Association
116-5399 Eglinton Ave. W., Toronto, Ontario M9C 5K6
