Howard Levitt: Ontario’s “Working for Workers” legislation turns routine hiring into legal minefield

By Howard Levitt and Candice Malan

Ontario employers have been handed a loaded gun — and it’s pointed right back at them.

On Jan. 1, 2026, the province’s Working for Workers legislation will fundamentally alter the act of hiring. What was once a human resources ritual — posting jobs, chatting with candidates, making a few notes — has become a legally regulated battlefield. Employers are now under a statutory duty to create and preserve records that will be used against them in the inevitable massive sets of litigation that follow.

This is not tinkering. It is a seismic shift.

For the first time, companies with 25 or more employees must keep records of job postings, applications and all information provided to interviewed candidates. They must also notify candidates of the outcome of interviews within 45 days. These are not “best practices.” They are statutory obligations, backed by ministry enforcement and destined to be weaponized in litigation.

Every interview is a legal event.

The law defines an interview broadly: “any meeting in person or by technology, telephone, teleconference, or video, where questions are asked and answers given to assess suitability for a role.” While the Act does not explicitly address preliminary resume-screening calls, once questions about skills, experience or fit are asked, the exchange is considered an interview and the new regime applies.

The legislation defines an interview so broadly that the casual “quick Zoom chat” or a recruiter’s screening call is no longer informal. If a question about skills or experience is asked, you are in interview territory. And with that comes a minefield of record-keeping obligations.

From now on, every word spoken to a candidate, every reassurance, every offhand remark about flexible hours or salary expectations must be preserved for three years. And if you fail to save anything, the ministry can enforce the law and plaintiffs’ lawyers will exploit it.

The romantic era when employers could say, “We didn’t keep notes and it’s up to you to prove it,” is over.

The law demands preservation of:

1. Every job posting and application for three years.
2. Every statement made to interviewed candidates — salary discussions, duties, promises, answers to questions, feedback, clarifications on duties, salary, promises about work arrangements. All of it.
3. Every communication, including follow-up emails, acknowledgments, action notices, outcome letters.

And those records cannot languish in a Gmail folder. They must be retrievable, secure and ready for disclosure.

Employers: you are now in the business of building a dossier — not on candidates, but on yourselves.

Silence, once a manager’s lazy refuge, is now illegal. If you miss that 45-day deadline to inform candidates of your search results, you have handed a prospective employee’s lawyer Exhibit A to your own prosecution.