Ontario requires written policies at several different headcount triggers, not one. Every employer needs workplace violence and harassment policies. Above five regularly employed workers they must be written and posted. At 25 employees, two more become mandatory every year by March 1.
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The Occupational Health and Safety Act requires every covered employer to prepare policies on workplace violence and workplace harassment, and to review them at least once a year. Where more than five workers are regularly employed, those policies and an occupational health and safety policy must be in writing and posted in a conspicuous place in the workplace. Five or fewer, and they need not be written unless an inspector orders it.
Policies on their own are not compliance. The Act also requires programs that implement them: how a worker reports an incident, including to someone other than the employer where the employer is the alleged harasser; how the investigation is conducted; how the results are communicated to the parties; and, for violence, an assessment of the risks with measures to control them. Inspectors ask for the program, not just the one-page policy.
Since June 2023, an employer who is aware, or ought reasonably to be aware, that a worker is at risk of an opioid overdose at a workplace where that worker performs work must provide and maintain a naloxone kit, with a trained worker in charge of it. It is a targeted duty, not a universal one — but the assessment is yours to make and document.
An employer with 25 or more employees on January 1 must have a written policy on disconnecting from work in place before March 1 of that year. The same threshold and the same deadline apply to a written policy on electronic monitoring of employees. Both must record the date they were prepared and the date of any change, and a copy goes to every employee within 30 days of preparation or change, and to each new hire within 30 days of hire.
The electronic monitoring policy has to say whether you monitor at all and, if you do, how and in what circumstances, and what the information collected may be used for. "We reserve the right to monitor" does not comply. Note what these policies do not do: neither creates a new right to be left alone or to be free from monitoring. They are disclosure obligations, and the penalty is for not disclosing.
Separately and regardless of size, every employer must give each employee a copy of the ministry's employment standards poster within 30 days of hire, and provide a translation if one has been published and the employee asks for it.
New Employment Standards Act rules now apply to publicly advertised job postings by employers with 25 or more employees. The posting must include the expected compensation or a range, disclose whether artificial intelligence is used to screen, assess or select applicants, and state whether the posting is for an existing vacancy. Requiring Canadian work experience in the posting or the application form is prohibited outright.
There are limits on how wide a posted range can be and an exemption for very high-paying roles, both set by the regulation. There is also a duty to inform interviewed applicants of the outcome, and record-keeping obligations tied to postings and applications. If you use an applicant tracking system or an external recruiter, the obligation is still yours — fix the templates, not just the habit.
Under the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation, every obligated organization must develop, implement and maintain policies governing how it meets its accessibility requirements. Organizations with 50 or more employees in Ontario must also include a statement of organizational commitment, document the policies, make them publicly available in an accessible format on request, and maintain a multi-year accessibility plan that is posted and reviewed at least every five years. Training obligations attach as well.
Then there are the policies no statute demands and every dispute turns on: acceptable use of IT and AI tools, confidentiality and intellectual property, attendance and progressive discipline, expenses, remote work, and drugs and alcohol. Ontario has no general private-sector privacy statute covering employee records, so what you may collect, monitor and act on is governed largely by your own written policy and the employment contract.
A policy you cannot prove was distributed is worth very little at a hearing. Keep a dated acknowledgement for every employee and every version, electronic or on paper. It is the cheapest evidence you will ever buy.
You still need workplace violence and workplace harassment policies and you must review them at least annually. The requirement to put them in writing and post them applies where more than five workers are regularly employed, though an inspector can order a smaller employer to do it anyway. Below 25 employees, the ESA disconnecting-from-work and electronic monitoring policies do not apply to you at all.
Count your employees on January 1. If you have 25 or more, the policy must be in place before March 1 of that same year, and distributed to every employee within 30 days of being prepared or changed. It is an annual test — crossing 25 employees in November means a March 1 deadline you may not have had the year before.
No Ontario statute requires a general employee privacy policy for most provincially regulated private employers. What you do need at 25 employees is the electronic monitoring policy. In practice a written data and acceptable-use policy is the foundation for disciplining misuse of company systems, so most employers should have one anyway. Health information and federally regulated employers are governed separately.
An inspector or employment standards officer can order compliance, and OHSA contraventions can be prosecuted. But the more common cost is evidentiary: in a harassment complaint, a human rights application or a wrongful dismissal claim, the absence of a policy and a documented investigation becomes the other side's best piece of evidence.
Nothing requires a signature, but you must be able to prove distribution, and for the OHSA policies you must be able to show they were posted. A dated acknowledgement — an email confirmation is fine — for each version is enough, and it is what you will be asked for first if anything goes wrong.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.