Ontario Wants To Create A Better Work-Life Balance For Employees & Here's How

If you're struggling to find the perfect work-life balance at your job, the Ontario government's new proposed legislation might help you out.

Ontario announced new legislation to "promote healthy work-life balance" called the Working for Workers Act, 2021 in a news release on Monday.

If the legislation is passed, it "will further enable competitiveness by banning unfair non-compete agreements that are used to restrict work opportunities, suppress salary increases and wage growth," according to the Ontario government.

"COVID-19 has changed the way we work, leaving too many people behind, struggling to put food on the table and make ends meet for their families," said Monte McNaughton, minister of labour, training and skills development.

On top of this, employers with 25 or more workers would be required to "develop disconnecting from work policies," which the Ontario government describes as "expectations about response time for emails and encouraging employees to turn on out-of-office notifications when they aren't working."

The legislation also includes measures brought up earlier this month like allowing delivery workers to use restaurant bathrooms, helping people trained in "regulated professions" outside of Canada continue their careers in Canada and new licencing rules for recruiters and temporary help agencies.