As you know, most of the new provisions regarding differential treatment provided by Bill 176: An Act to amend the Act respecting labour standards and other legislative provisions mainly to facilitate family-work balance will come into force on January 1^st, 2019. We would like to advise you however that the CNESST takes the position that the new provision¹ which states that a personnel placement agency cannot remunerate an employee at a lower rate of wage than that granted to the employees of the client enterprise who perform the same tasks in the same establishment solely because of the employee’s employment status will only come into force with the adoption by the government of a regulation regulating personnel placement agencies.

However, please note that your employees paid by a personnel placement agency may, in some circumstances, allege that you are, in fact, the true employer (and not the personnel placement agency) and therefore, their rate of pay inferior to that of your other employees is illegal as of January 1^st, 2019 because of the coming into force of the modifications made to section 41.1 of an Act respecting labour standards.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact a member of our team.

-------

¹ Section 41.2. “No personnel placement agency may remunerate an employee at a lower rate of wage than that granted to the employees of the client enterprise who perform the same tasks in the same establishment solely because of the employee’s employment status, and in particular because the employee is remunerated by such an agency or usually works fewer hours each week.”