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• Solidarity – Bill 148 will arguably make it easier for some employees to unionize. It allows for “card-based” certification — wherein workers can form a union if enough employees sign a card saying they want to be represented by the union, rather than a vote having to be held — for the building services, home care and community services, and temporary help agency industries. This is in addition to the construction sector, which already uses the card-based method.

• The maximum fines under the province’s Labour Relations Act would also be bolstered, to $5,000 from $2,000 for individuals and to $100,000 from $25,000 for businesses.

• Scheduling – Bill 148 is chock full of changes to how bosses can pencil in their hires for shifts. As one example, when an employee has worked somewhere for more than three months, the law allows them to ask for schedule or location changes, “without fear of reprisal,” the government says.

• Under the new law, employees who usually work more than three hours a day, but who show up to work and are given less than that, would have to be paid for three hours. And if a boss cancels a shift on an employee less than 48 hours before that shift was set to begin, the worker would be paid for three hours of work.

• Leave — The legislation contains a number of sections establishing rules around leaves and holidays, such as employers having to give their workers a minimum of three weeks of paid vacation if the employees have been working for them for five years or more.