The Government of Ontario has published the much-anticipated Regulations clarifying the various “new hire information” and “job posting” requirements under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (the “ESA”) and the “washroom facility” requirements under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (the “OHSA”).

Information For New Hires Effective July 1, 2025

Changes under the Working for Workers [Three] Act, 2023 provided that certain information must be provided to employees on their first day of work (or as soon after as reasonably possible).

Reg. 477/24 sets out the required information to be provided as follows:

1. The legal name of the employer, as well as any operating or business name of the employer if different from the legal name.
2. Contact information for the employer, including address, telephone number and one or more contact names.
3. A general description of where it is anticipated that the employee will initially perform work.
4. The employee’s starting hourly or other wage rate or commission, as applicable.
5. The pay period and pay day established by the employer in accordance with subsection 11 (1) of the Act.
6. A general description of the employee’s initial anticipated hours of work.

This information must be provided by employers with more than 25 employees on the employee’s first day of work. The information does not need to be provided to “assignment employees” (those employed by a temporary help agency for the purpose of being assigned to perform work on a temporary basis for clients of the agency).

Job Posting Requirements Effective January 1, 2026

Changes to the ESA pursuant to the Working for Workers Four Act and Working for Workers Five Act included requirements that “publicly advertised job postings” include: the expected range of wages or salary for the position; disclose whether the employer uses artificial intelligence to screen, assess or select applications for a position; and disclose whether the position is vacant and that employers must respond to applicants they have interviewed for those jobs.

Reg. 476/24 provides a number of clarifying definitions related to the job posting requirements:

• “artificial intelligence” means a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers from the input it receives in order to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments
• “publicly advertised job posting” means an external job posting that an employer or a person acting on behalf of an employer advertises to the general public in any manner but does not include,
  • (a) a general recruitment campaign that does not advertise a specific position,
  • (b) a general help wanted sign that does not advertise a specific position,
  • (c) a posting for a position that is restricted to existing employees of the employer, or
  • (d) a posting for a position for which work is to be,
    • (i) performed outside Ontario, or
    • (ii) performed outside Ontario and in Ontario and the work performed outside Ontario is not a continuation of work performed in Ontario
• “interview” means a meeting in person or a meeting using technology, including but not limited to teleconference and videoconference technology, between an applicant who has applied to a publicly advertised job posting and an employer or a person acting on behalf of an employer where questions are asked and answers are given to assess the applicant’s suitability for the position, but does not include preliminary screening before the selection of applicants for such a meeting

The Regulation provides that the job posting requirements only apply to employers that employ more than 25 employees on the day the publicly advertised job posting is posted. Further, the requirements only apply to job postings for positions where the top end of the expected range of compensation is less than $200,000 annually. The range of expected compensation cannot be greater than $50,000.

Further, employers are required to advise interviewees of whether a hiring decision has been made in respect of a publicly advertised job posting within 45 days of the date of the interview. This may be done in-person, in writing, or using technology.

Washroom Facilities Effective January 1, 2026

Pursuant to the Working for Workers Five Act, employers and constructors are required to ensure that washroom facilities provided for workers are maintained in a clean and sanitary condition, and that records of cleaning are to be maintained and made available to workers.

Reg. 480/24 provides that employers and constructors are to post cleaning records “in a conspicuous place in or near the washroom facility to which the record pertains” OR may be posted electronically where it can be accessed by workers, and workers are provided with direction on where and how to access the record. Further, the cleaning records must include the date and time of the two most recent cleanings of the washroom facility.

Reg. 482/24 provides that for constructors on construction projects, the cleaning records must include the date of all servicing, cleaning, and sanitizing of the washroom facility for the past six months or the duration of the project, whichever is shorter.

If you have any questions about this topic or any other questions relating to workplace law, please do not hesitate to contact a Mathews Dinsdale Lawyer.