LAWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Minimum Wage

Apr 1: New Brunswick increased its general minimum wage 25 cents to $15.90 per hour to keep up with inflation in accordance with the Consumer Price Index, which grew by 1.7% in 2025.

Action Point: Find out how to avoid common payroll errors when implementing minimum wage increases.

Pay Transparency

Mar 20: The New Brunswick Assembly gave Second Reading to pay transparency legislation (Bill 24) requiring employers to include salary ranges in job postings, banning use of salary history in hiring, and protecting employees from reprisals for discussing their wages. Employers must also submit annual pay transparency reports to the Pay Equity Bureau listing pay differences among women, POC, and other “equity groups.”

Action Point: Find out how to implement a Pay Transparency Compliance Game Plan at your workplace.

New Laws

Mar 25: Newly tabled legislation (Bill 33) would make it easier for out-of-province tradespeople to work in New Brunswick via automatic recognition of certificates of qualification or equivalency from other provincial and territorial apprenticeship authorities. It would also eliminate the requirement for certified tradespersons from other provinces to apply for an equivalent certificate and pay the associated $150 fee, as well as the fees for registration ($25) and prior learning assessment ($100) fees charged to apprentices registered in Canadian jurisdictions outside New Brunswick.

Action Point: Find out about the 5 ways the new interprovincial free trade and labour mobility regulations will impact HR operations.

Labour Relations

Apr 15: New Brunswick signed a new collective agreement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 2745 representing about 6,400 school support staff employees that includes a general wage increase of $5 per hour over four years, retroactive to Feb. 28, 2023. Employees will receive hourly wage increases of $1.10 in the first year, $1.10 in the second year, $1.30 in the third year, and $1.60 in the fourth year.

New Laws

Apr 9: The Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund (CHIF) will invest over $1.8 million in a project to expand the water and wastewater infrastructure in Belle-Baie. The province will also provide $1.2 million in support and municipalities will kick in another $606,000.

Workplace Violence

Mar 24: Legislation (Bill 27) making it easier for victims of intimate partner violence to sue for money damages passed Second Reading. Since 2010, there’s been no statute of limitations on filing civil lawsuits for trespass to the person, assault, or battery for acts of a sexual nature. The proposed amendments would expand this to include non-sexual harm that occurred in an intimate personal relationship or in a situation where a person was financially, physically or emotionally dependent on the person who harmed them.

Action Point: Find out how to protect your employees from the risk of workplace domestic violence.

Workers’ Compensation

Mar 18: WorkSafeNB revised Policy 21-111 governing workers’ compensation coverage of occupational diseases. The changes provide guidance on whether an identified disease is recognized as an occupational disease in the general population (“population-level causation”) and the type of information gathered to determine whether it’s more likely than not that the worker's disease is work-related (“individual-level causation”).

CASES

There are no cases to report on this month.