1.01  The purpose of this Statement of Policy and Procedure is to comply with Part VII.0.1 of the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000. Employers that employ 25 or more employees are required to have a written policy on disconnecting from work in place for all employees. They are also required to provide a copy of the written policy to all employees. These requirements were added to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 on December 2, 2021.

A Right to Disconnect policy can help to ensure that employees benefit from our remote and flexible working environment. While digital tools allow employees the flexibility to work anywhere and at any time, an always-connected work culture carries important psychosocial risks, including, but not limited to, anxiety, depression, and burnout.

MakeWay therefore recognizes that employees have a right to disconnect from work and are under no obligation to answer phone calls, emails, or messages outside normal working hours.

2.01 This policy applies to all MakeWay Foundation and Charitable Society staff.

3.01 Working Hours

MakeWay Foundation’s general business hours are 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday (local time at the office with which employees are connected). The core hours of work are 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. While individual schedules may vary, all MakeWay Foundation employees should endeavour to work during core hours to ensure they will be available to attend scheduled meetings, conference calls, group events, etc.

Projects on MakeWay’s shared platform will establish their own business hours to reflect operating requirements. Foundation and project employees should consider each other’s business hours when scheduling meetings and establishing work plans.

Regular full-time hours are 37.5 hours per week.

3.02 Right to Disconnect

All employees have a right to not engaging in work-related communications, including emails, telephone calls, video calls or the sending or reviewing of other messages, so as to be free from the performance of work, outside of their regular working hours.

Employees in management or leadership positions will not require their team members to engage in work-related communications outside of working hours unless there is job requirement, an emergency, or time sensitive situation.

3.03 Overtime

Nothing in this policy modifies MakeWay’s overtime policies and practices, which are established by employment standards legislation, individual employment agreements, MakeWay policies, and employee handbooks/guidebooks.  Overtime agreed to by employee and approved the employee’s Manager is not time away from work and not subject to this policy. 

4.01 It is the responsibility of MakeWay to ensure it has a written policy in place for all employees with respect to disconnecting from work that includes the date the policy was prepared and the date any changes were made to the policy.

4.02 It is the responsibility of MakeWay to provide a copy of the policy with respect to disconnecting from work to each employee within 30 days of preparing the policy or, if an existing written policy is changed, within 30 days of the changes being made.

4.03 It is the responsibility of MakeWay to provide a copy of the policy with respect to disconnecting from work that applies to a new employee within 30 days of the day the employee becomes an employee of the employer.

4.04 It is the responsibility of Managers to pre-approve all overtime, whether banked or paid.

4.05 It is the responsibility of the Employee to disconnect from work outside of their regular working hours.

5.01 “Disconnecting from Work” means not engaging in work-related communications, including emails, telephone calls, video calls or the sending or reviewing of other messages, so as to be free from the performance of work.

5.02 “Banked Time” means keeping track of extra hours worked.