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2025 HR Law Check-Up: 5 Requirements to Review

2025 hr law

As we kick off the new year, it is a great time for employers to do a 2025 HR law check up, and ensure they are ready to meet their employment law obligations. This post reviews 5 key requirements that all employers in Canada must meet under employment standards, health and safety, human rights, accessibility and other applicable legislation.

  1. Workplace Policies
  2. Employee Communications
  3. Training
  4. Hiring
  5. Ongoing Compliance

#1 Workplace Policies

Every jurisdiction in Canada requires employers to develop and implement certain mandatory workplace policies.

Health and Safety

At almost every Canadian workplace, employers must have a policy setting out the their commitment to ensuring the health and safety of their employees. Once employers employ a specified number of workers in a province – typically 20 workers, though it is as little as 6 workers in Ontario – they must also develop a more detailed health and safety program. The content of these policies and programs varies from one province to the next, but may include employee training, hazard assessments, inspections, investigation procedures, and health and safety committee operations.

In addition to general health and safety policies and programs, most jurisdictions in Canada require employers to implement workplace harassment and violence policies – regardless of how many employees they have.

Workplace harassment and violence programs must be developed in consultation with the health and safety committee or representative, as applicable. The specific requirements vary from one province to the next, but generally they include:

  • employer statements committing to preventing and protecting employees from harassment/violence
  • a process for employers and workers to follow when addressing harassment/violence, including complaint and investigation procedures.

For more information on workplace harassment and violence, see our earlier post.

What other workplace policies are required?

Other mandatory policies, which vary from one Canadian jurisdiction to the next, include:

  • Accessibility: Ontario and Manitoba employers must develop, implement and maintain accessibility policies. These employers with 50 or more employees must publish accessibility policies. Manitoba employers must also establish and implement a return to work policy, while Ontario employers with 50+ employees must also document return to work and individual accommodation processes.
  • Technology: Ontario employers with 25+ employees must document their expectations around disconnecting from work and electronic monitoring.

What’s New

Historically, Quebec did not have a detailed workplace harassment and violence regime similar to what we see in other provinces. In an effort to establish stronger protections for employees, Quebec passed Bill 42 in 2024 – instituting more detailed requirements respecting psychological harassment and sexual violence for employees working in the province. This includes requiring employers to develop a policy statement (which meets specified requirements) on psychological harassment prevention and complaint processing.

In 2024, the federal government followed Ontario’s lead by passing amendments requiring federal employers to implement a disconnect from work policy. These new policy provisions, which are not yet in force, will require employers to develop a policy in in consultation with employees that outlines their expectations regarding work-related communications outside of scheduled hours of work.

#2 Employee Communications

The range of information that must be posted in a workplace may surprise even seasoned HR teams. Unless all of your employees are fully remote, it is worthwhile to tour the workplace, and ensure that the required information is posted.

Mandatory postings differ from province to province, but may include information such as:

  • posters/summaries describing employment standards
  • copies of health and safety legislation
  • names and contact information of health and safety committee members or representatives, as applicable
  • first aid information
  • policies and procedures
  • no smoking signs
  • government inspection orders and reports.

See our earlier posts for more details on what employment information must be provided to federal and Ontario employees.

In addition to posting information, some jurisdictions require employers to provide each employee with a copy of certain information. For example, in Ontario, employers must give employees the most recent employment standards poster published by the government plus copies of specified policies. And this includes providing copies to any employees working from home.

What’s New

Effective July 1, 2025, Ontario employers with 25+ employees will have to provide certain information (in writing) to new employees (e.g., employer contact information, starting wages, pay period).

#3 2025 HR Law Training

Employers must provide all of the training mandated by employment legislation. Training requirements vary from one jurisdiction to the next, but there are certain themes which appear across the country.

  • Health & Safety: Like policies, every province in Canada mandates health and safety training. This includes:
    • basic occupational health and safety awareness (e.g., duties and rights of workers, employers and supervisors under OHSA, and common workplace hazards)
    • information and instruction on workplace harassment and violence policies and programs
    • first aid.
  • Accessibility: Ontario employers must provide training on accessibility standards and the Human Rights Code (as relates to persons with disabilities) not only to employees, but also to volunteers. Manitoba requires employers to provide accommodation training to persons who are responsible for hiring, supervising, training, promoting or terminating employees, as well as those who develop and implement the employer’s policies and practices.

For further information, see our Guide to Mandatory Employee Training.

What’s New

As a part of expanded HR laws to protect Quebec employees from harassment (noted above), these employers must provide new information and training programs on psychological harassment prevention. 

#4 Hiring Obligations

When hiring new employees, it is important to ensure that you are meeting your obligations under human rights and pay transparency legislation. These requirements start as soon as you publish a job advertisement, and continue through the interviewing and onboarding process.

Job Advertisements

Every employer in Canada is subject to human rights laws. These obligations kick in as soon as an employer decides to hire a new employee. Generally, human rights legislation prohibits employers from advertising a job or using an application form that expresses a limitation, specification or preference based on a “prohibited ground of discrimination”.  Prohibited grounds include race, sex, age, family status and disability. Sometimes discrimination in a job ad or application may be permitted if there is a bona fide occupational requirement or special program. (For further information, including a more detailed list of prohibited grounds, see our earlier post on hiring.)

Some provinces in Canada (e.g., British Columbian and PEI) have enacted pay transparency legislation, requiring employers to include pay in formation in public job postings.

Employers hiring in Quebec have additional obligations per the Charter of the French language. They must publish offers of employment, transfer or promotion in French. Employers cannot make knowledge of a language other than French a job requirement, except where the nature of the job’s duties requires knowledge of another language. For more information on how Quebec’s French language laws impact hiring, see our earlier post: French Language Laws Triggered by 1 Quebec Employee.

Interviews

When interviewing, the law prohibits employers from asking candidates certain questions. You cannot ask questions that express a limitation, specification or preference based on a prohibited ground under human rights legislation (subject to exceptions for a bona fide occupational requirement). In jurisdictions with pay transparency legislation, you cannot ask candidates about their wage history.

Onboarding

As noted above, employers must provide certain communications and training to employees. Don’t forget to ensure that new employees receive all mandatory information!

What’s New

Effective January 1, 2026, Ontario employers with 25+ employees will have to include the following in publicly advertised job postings:

  • expected compensation for the position (or the range of expected compensation)
  • any use of artificial intelligence to screen, assess or select applicants for a position
  • whether the posting is for an existing vacancy.

Employers will be prohibited from including Canadian experience requirements in publicly advertised job postings or associated application forms. Ontario employers also will have a duty to provide certain information to applicants who are interviewed. See our earlier post regarding the new Ontario job ad rules for more details.

#5 Ongoing Compliance

Most HR compliance requirements don’t easily fall into one of the above categories. In addition to mandatory policies, employee communications, training, and hiring requirements, employers must ensure that they comply with a wide range of ongoing obligations under employment standards, health and safety and human rights, and (where applicable) accessibility, French language and pay equity laws. These are the never-ending, day-to-day requirements that all employers must meet. For example: How much vacation time do I have to give my employee? When does overtime kick in? Do I have to establish a health and safety committee? And, unfortunately, these laws are frequently amended.

So, how can employers stay on top of all of these HR compliance requirements? Compliance Works can help.

How Compliance Works Helps HR Teams to Comply with 2025 HR Laws

Compliance Works makes it easy for HR teams to stay on top of 2025 HR laws – with checklists and plain language summaries of complex employment laws.

  1. Review your interactive checklist and track your progress.
  2. Read the applicable summary to understand exactly what you need to do.
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Contact us to Request a Demo or email us at info@complianceworks.ca to learn how a subscription to Compliance Works can help your HR team succeed.

About the author

Lesha Van Der Bij
Lesha Van Der Bij CEO and Co-Founder, Compliance Works
Lesha is a senior lawyer who spent many years of her legal career at major Canadian law firms reviewing legislation and creating easy-to-understand summaries for clients.

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