As HR teams look to the year ahead and begin setting priorities, it is important to understand how changes in the law and other HR trends may impact those plans and priorities. As we start the year, there are four trends and upcoming changes that we are keeping an eye on:
- Transparency
- The use of AI
- Accessibility
- Specific requirements for Federally-regulated employers
For a look at the past year, see our 2023 Year in Review.
#1 Transparency
Transparency in the employment relationship continues to be an HR trend that we see heading into 2024. Several jurisdictions have either proposed or passed transparency requirements that employers must be aware of.
In Ontario, Bill 149 includes pay transparency requirements (see our full article on Bill 149 here), specifically, new requirements aimed at increasing employer transparency obligations with respect to publicly posted job ads.
Employers will be required to disclose the following in job postings:
- expected compensation for the position (or the range of expected compensation);
- whether any artificial intelligence was used to screen, assess or select applicants for a position.
In addition, Ontario Bill 149 prohibits employers from including Canadian experience requirements in publicly advertised job postings or associated application forms. Employers must retain copies of these job postings and any associated application forms for 3 years after the job ad is no longer publicly available.
All of these requirements regarding what must or must not be included in job ads indicate that they may be subject to exceptions in future regulations. The government also specified that these new requirements will be brought into force at a future date. This means that the government has given itself time to create exemptions from these requirements – perhaps for certain jobs or industries – before these changes apply to your workplace.
Ontario employers also need to remember their obligation to disclose their expectations around disconnecting from work and electronic monitoring. If you employed 25 or more employees in Ontario on January 1, 2024, you need to have electronic monitoring and disconnecting from work policies in place by March 1, 2024.
Pay transparency reporting requirements have also come into force in British Columbia. For 2024, the reporting obligations apply to certain government/government agency employers and private sector employers with 1000 or more employees on January 1, 2024. These reporting employers are required to prepare a pay transparency report on or before November 1, 2024.
Pay transparency reports must meet the specific requirements of the legislation and must be publicly available. The report must be published on a publicly accessible website maintained by or on behalf of the reporting employer. If you do not have a publicly accessible website, you must:
- make a copy of the report available to employees in at least one conspicuous place in each workplace; and
- make a copy of the report available to any member of the public who requests one.
#2 Use of AI in HR
One of the most significant HR trends is AI. AI will continue to be a hot topic in 2024, with much focus on how it can be used to streamline HR functions. It is important to understand how AI can be leveraged by HR, but it is also important to be aware of how AI is being regulated. Governments are recognizing the risks of AI and they are beginning to introduce legislation to address some of those risks.
In Canada, the federal government’s Bill C-27 would create a new Act called the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (see our previous post for more on Bill C-27). If passed, that Act includes provisions dealing with “automated decision systems”.
Automated decision systems are defined as “any technology that assists or replaces the judgment of human decision-makers through the use of a rules-based program, regression analysis, predictive analytics, machine learning, deep learning, a neural network or other technique”.
The requirements regarding automated decision systems would apply broadly, but there are specific considerations in the employment context. For example, if a federally regulated employer uses automated decision systems in its hiring and HR practices (such as resume screening or ranking programs, aptitude tests, personality tests etc. that meet the above definition), it would need to comply with the following requirements in the CPPA:
- Plain Language: The organization must publish in plain language a general account of its use of any automated decision system to make predictions, recommendations or decisions about individuals that could have a significant impact on them; and
- Response to Request for Explanation: If an individual makes a request, the organization must provide the individual with an explanation of the prediction, recommendation or decision and the explanation must include the type of personal information that was used, the source of the information and the reasons or principal factors that led to the prediction, recommendation or decision.
The Ontario government also recently announced that it will also be introducing legislation related to to the use of AI by employers. The government announced that its legislation would require employers to inform job seekers when AI is used to inform decisions in the hiring process. We expect to see other jurisdictions follow suit.
#3 Accessibility
As we start 2024, the media has been shining a light on accessibility. Since the start of 2024, the CBC has written at least 6 articles about accessibility in Ontario and the looming 2025 deadline to make the province fully accessible. It’s too early to tell whether the public attention on accessibility will translate into further government action, but as Ontario approaches the 2025 deadline for full accessibility, we can expect that accessibility will continue to be a general topic of conversation.
Accessibility is addressed by both human rights legislation and specific accessibility legislation. The following jurisdictions currently have accessibility legislation in place:
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Nova Scotia
- Ontario
- Saskatchewan (legislation came into force on December 3, 2023)
- Federal
There are some important deadlines for accessibility in 2024. Under the Federal legislation, even the smallest employers will be required to have prepared an initial accessibility plan by June 1, 2024. Employers with 10 to 99 employees must publish their first accessibility plan by the June 1 deadline (employers with 100 or more employees were required to have prepared their initial plan by June 1, 2023 and they must prepare and publish an annual progress report by June 1, 2024). The legislation includes specific requirements for accessibility plans, including that employers consult people with disabilities when creating and updating their plans.
Saskatchewan’s accessibility legislation came into force on December 3, 2023 but the government has not yet published standards.
#4 Federally Regulated Employers
There are a number of changes coming for Federally regulated employers in 2024. Two key changes relate to hours of work requirements and termination of employment.
Additional exemptions to the hours of work requirements are being introduced for certain sectors with continuous operations. The exemptions apply to notice of work schedules, notice of shift changes, break entitlements and rest periods between shifts. These exemptions apply to certain classes of employees in the rail, transportation, banking, telecommunications and broadcasting and air transportations sectors. As of January 4, 2024 the exemptions applied to the rail, transportation, banking, telecommunications and broadcasting sectors and as of June 4, 2024 the exemptions will apply to the air transportation sector. Employers engaged in any of these sectors will want to ensure that they understand the full scope of the exemptions.
Federally regulated employers also need to be aware of changes regarding notice of termination that take effect on February 1, 2024. The minimum notice of termination required for individual termination will increase as of February 1. This change brings federally-regulated employers more in line with the notice regime in most provincial jurisdictions. Currently, federally-regulated employers must provide employees with a minimum of two weeks notice of termination. As of February 1, the minimum notice that employers must provide will be based on the length of an employee’s employment. It is important to ensure that your employment agreements comply with these new minimum requirements.
In addition to the increased notice period, employers will be required to:
- provide employees with a statement of benefits on termination,
- provide employees with government materials related to termination of employment; and
- provide notice to the union if an employee is terminated because their position is being taken by a redundant employee with seniority.
How Compliance Works Helps HR Professionals Stay on Top of HR Trends
Staying on top of compliance deadlines and constantly changing HR trends can be challenging and time consuming. Compliance Works provides timely updates on changes to employment laws across Canada and our Reminders ensure that you never miss a change.
Contact us to Request a Demo , subscribe to Compliance Works publications, or email us at info@complianceworks.ca to learn how a paid subscription to Compliance Works can help your HR team succeed.
