Changes to Canada Labour Code Employment Rules

The Canadian government recently announced some changes to the Canada Labour Code that will affect all federally-regulated employees.

Under Regulation SOR/2023-180 related to the Canada Labour Code, there will be certain exemptions for specific categories of employees for companies in sectors with continuous operations (i.e., those that generally operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week such as airlines and railroad sectors) and in sectors with unique scheduling practices (such as the banking, telecommunications and broadcasting, and postal/courier). For these exemptions, the government has favoured allowing companies flexibility from specified hours of work requirements in the Canada Labour Code, as its primary purpose is:

“to support the implementation of new hours of work provisions (sections 169.1, 169.2, 173.01 and 173.1 of the Code) in order to balance the operational realities of certain industries with the legislative goal of providing employees with work-life balance and more predictability in relation to their hours of work.”

Additionally, the government has stated another important purpose is to help regulate a work-life balance for employees by “providing employees with more predictability in relation to their hours of work.” Specifically, the employment law rules for federal employees involve work schedules, shift changes or additions, breaks, and rest periods, and specifically require employers to provide their employees:

at least 96 hours’ written notice of their work schedules;
at least 24 hours’ written notice of shift changes or additions;
an unpaid break of at least 30 minutes during every period of 5 consecutive hours of work; and
a rest period of at least 8 consecutive hours between work periods or shifts.

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