O. Reg. 304/21: WORK REDEPLOYMENT FOR INDEPENDENT HEALTH FACILITIES, Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act

Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act

ONTARIO REGULATION 304/21

WORK REDEPLOYMENT FOR INDEPENDENT HEALTH FACILITIES

Note: This Order was revoked on June 16, 2021. (See: O. Reg. 25/21, Sched. 1, s. 1)

No amendments.

This is the English version of a bilingual regulation.

Terms of Order

1. The terms of this Order are set out in Schedule 1.

Schedule 1
Work Redeployment

Definitions

1. For the purpose of this Order,

“COVID-19” means the coronavirus (COVID-19); (“COVID-19”)

“hospital” means a health service provider within the meaning of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of the definition of “health service provider” in subsection 1 (2) of the Connecting Care Act, 2019; (“hôpital”)

“independent health facility” has the same meaning as in subsection 1 (1) of the Independent Health Facilities Act. (“établissement de santé autonome”)

Work redeployment and staffing

2. Independent health facilities are authorized to take, with respect to work deployment and staffing, any reasonably necessary measure to assist hospitals to respond to, prevent and alleviate the outbreak of COVID-19.

Measures

3. (1) Without limiting the generality of section 2, and despite any other statute, regulation, order, policy, arrangement or agreement, including a collective agreement, an independent health facility is authorized to do the following:

1. Identify hospital staffing priorities and develop, modify and implement redeployment plans, including the following:

i. Redeploying staff to provide assistance within a hospital.

ii. Changing the assignment of work, including assigning non-bargaining unit employees or contractors to perform bargaining unit work.

iii. Changing the scheduling of work or shift assignments.

iv. Deferring or cancelling vacations, absences or other leaves, regardless of whether such vacations, absences or leaves are established by statute, regulation, agreement or otherwise.

v. Providing appropriate training or education as needed to staff to achieve the purposes of a redeployment plan.

(2) For greater certainty, an independent health facility may implement redeployment plans without complying with the provisions of an employment agreement or the provisions of a collective agreement, including lay-off, seniority/service or bumping provisions, and may,

(a) conduct any skills and experience inventories of staff to identify possible alternative roles in priority areas;

(b) require and collect information from staff or contractors about their availability to provide services;

(c) require the provision of and collect information from staff or contractors about their likely or actual exposure to COVID-19, or about any other health conditions that may affect their ability to provide services; and

(d) suspend, for the duration of this Order, any grievance process with respect to any matter referred to in this Order.

Rules re redeployment

4. In the circumstances described in section 2, the following rules apply:

1. Staff of an independent health facility who provide assistance within a hospital remain the staff of the independent health facility.

2. The deployment or provision of assistance shall not impact whether the deploying independent health facility and the receiving hospital are treated as constituting one employer for the purposes of subsection 1 (4) of the Labour Relations Act, 1995.

3. The independent health facility shall not, by virtue of deploying staff or providing assistance, be considered to have sold a part of its business to the hospital for the purposes of section 69 of the Labour Relations Act, 1995.

4. The independent health facility shall not, by virtue of deploying staff or providing assistance to the receiving hospital, be considered to have amalgamated with the receiving hospital or to have transferred all or substantially all of its assets to the receiving hospital for the purposes of section 8 of the Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act, 1997.

5. A deployment or provision of assistance shall not impact whether the independent health facility or the hospital is considered to be a hospital for the purposes of the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act.