Employers Must Advise Employees of Employment Standards Rights

On May 30, 2019, new changes to the BC Employment Standards Act took effect which are intended to provide employees with a greater understanding of their rights under the Act. Along with several other changes to the Act, employers are now required to provide employees with a brief explanation of their rights. Section 6 of BC's Act now states:

Informing employees of their rights

An employer must make available or provide to each employee, in a form provided or approved by the director, information about the rights of the employee under this Act.

What are employers responsible for in BC?

The Employment Standards Branch has approved of an information sheet for employers to provide to employees. A copy of that information sheet can be located on the Employment Standards website. The information sheet summarizes an employee's minimum rights under the Act, providing information about minimum wages, deductions, holidays, vacations, leaves of absences, termination pay, and other employee rights.

Going forward, employers will be responsible for making sure that employees receive a copy of this information sheet. The Act does not set out how employers should provide this information sheet to employees. But the Employment Standards Branch currently advises that this may be done by posting the information sheet "in the workplace, and providing it directly to employees when they are hired."

What should employees and employers in BC be aware of?

It is important to recognize that the new information sheet only provides a brief overview of some key sections in the Act. Employees and employers should be aware that :

  • The information sheet does not describe every right that an employee has under the Act. It summarizes some, but not all, of an employee's minimum rights under the Act. A number of important rights under the Act which do not arise as frequently are not mentioned.
  • The information sheet does not describe certain exceptions that exist. The information sheet does not mention that not all employees in BC are protected by the Act. And among those employees who are protected by the Act, not all of them are protected by every section in the Act.
  • The information sheet only describes an employee's minimum rights under the Act. The information sheet does not summarize rights that an employee may have for other reasons (including, for an example, in certain circumstances the right to make a Human Rights Code claim or the right to reasonable notice of a dismissal).

This new information sheet is intended to help employees to understand their basic rights under the Act. However, both employees and employers should be cautious not to rely too heavily on the Employment Standards information sheet. Once a potential issue is identified, employees and employers will need to be careful to verify which rights and duties apply to them.

brendan harvey - wrongful dismissal vancouver
About the Author

Brendan Harvey advises and represents employees and small businesses at all stages before, during, and after the employment relationship. His primary areas of practice include wrongful dismissal, employment standards, and human rights litigation. If you would like to schedule a meeting with Brendan Harvey or any other of our lawyers, give us a call at 604-988-1000.

 

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