Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020
formerly under Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act
WORK DEPLOYMENT MEASURES IN LONG-TERM CARE HOMES
Note: This Regulation was revoked on April 27, 2022. (See: O. Reg. 346/22, s. 1)
Last amendment: 346/22.
Legislative History: 381/20, 346/22.
This is the English version of a bilingual regulation.
Terms of Order
1. The terms of this Order are set out in Schedule 1. O. Reg. 381/20, s. 3.
SCHEDULE 1
LONG-TERM CARE HOMES
1. This Order applies to the following, province-wide:
1. Health service providers within the meaning of paragraph 4 of subsection 1 (2) of the Connecting Care Act, 2019.
2. Health service providers within the meaning of paragraph 5 of subsection 1 (2) of the Connecting Care Act, 2019 but only in relation to long-term care homes they maintain.
2. Health service providers shall and are authorized to take, with respect to work deployment and staffing, any reasonably necessary measure to respond to, prevent and alleviate the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) (the “Virus”) for residents.
3. Without limiting the generality of section 2 of this Schedule, and despite any other statute, regulation, order, policy, arrangement or agreement, including a collective agreement, health service providers shall and are authorized to do the following:
i. Identify staffing priorities and develop, modify and implement redeployment plans, including the following:
A. Redeploying employees so that any particular employee is not providing services at more than one long-term care home operated or maintained by the health service provider.
B. Changing the assignment of work, including assigning non-bargaining unit employees or contractors to perform bargaining unit work.
C. Changing the scheduling of work or shift assignments.
D. Deferring or cancelling vacations, absences or other leaves, regardless of whether such vacations, absences or leaves are established by statute, regulation, agreement or otherwise.
E. Employing extra part-time or temporary staff or contractors, including for the purposes of performing bargaining unit work.
F. Using volunteers to perform work, including to perform bargaining unit work.
G. Providing appropriate training or education as needed to staff and volunteers to achieve the purposes of a redeployment plan.
For greater certainty, a health service provider may implement redeployment plans without complying with provisions of a collective agreement, including lay-off, seniority/service or bumping provisions.
ii. Conduct any skills and experience inventories of staff to identify possible alternative roles in any area.
iii. Require and collect information from staff or contractors about their availability to provide services for the health service provider.
iv. Require the provision of and collect information from staff or contractors about their likely or actual exposure to the Virus, or about any other health conditions that may affect their ability to provide services.
v. Suspend, for the duration of this Order, any grievance process with respect to any matter referred to in this Order. O. Reg. 77/20; O. Reg. 147/20, s. 2.