LAWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Pay Transparency

Jun 12: Royal Assent for New Brunswick 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, Blacks, and other “equity groups.”

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

Leaves of Absence

Jun 12: Newly passed Bill 26 gives employees with 90 days of continuous service 27 weeks’ unpaid long-term illness and injury leave. Employees must notify employers “without delay” of the anticipated start date and duration and take leave in periods of at least one week. Employers may require certification from a medical practitioner, nurse practitioner, or midwife.

Action Point: New Brunswick is just one of the many provinces that have changed their sick and long-term illness leave laws since the pandemic. Find out how to implement a legally sound Sick Leave Compliance Game Plan at your own workplace.

New Laws

Jun 12: New Brunswick implemented two new programs to help oyster producers affected by the outbreak of the MSX (multinucleate sphere unknown) and Dermo diseases: i. Employee Retention Support Fund of up to $8 million over three years to help producers retain skilled workers and provide biosecurity training; and ii. Shellfish Quality Intervention Fund of up to $3.5 million for inventory losses, site cleanup, and operational costs. Oyster production generated $35.7 million in farm gate value in 2024 and supports about 650 seasonal jobs across the province.

New Laws

Jun 12: The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) announced an investment of up to $4.6 million in non-repayable support over three years to help New Brunswick oyster producers affected by MSX and Dermo diseases. The money will be distributed by the Community Business Development Corporation Kent (CBDC Kent), which provides entrepreneurs living in rural communities access to capital and other business resources.

Labour Relations

Jun 10: The province signed a new collective agreement with the roughly 7,800 teachers represented by the New Brunswick Teachers’ Federation. The agreement is retroactive to March 1, 2026, and includes a general economic increase of 14.5% over five years. Additional measures include a 1% recruitment adjustment upon signing and another 1% on March 1, 2030, along with a recognition and retention premium for long serving teachers of 1% after 15 years, 2% after 20 years, and 3% after 25 years.

New Laws

Jun 12: Newly passed Bill 39 increases the New Brunswick Small Business Investor Tax Credit rate for corporate investors from 15% to 25%, raise the maximum threshold of eligible corporations’ net tangible assets from $40 million to $50 million to broaden access to the program, and make convertible debentures a new eligible funding vehicle. For non-strategic sectors, the maximum investment limits of $250,000 for individual investors and $500,000 for corporate investors would remain unchanged.

New Laws

Jun 12: Bill 41 enabling local governments in New Brunswick to establish for-profit corporations to generate clean energy and profit from the sale of renewable energy received Royal Assent. The legislation makes it easier for local governments to construct, own, and operate a generation facility within their boundary for their own purpose, or sell the electricity to a consumer or a distribution utility. This includes renewable energy projects such as solar, wind, and hydro.

New Laws

Jun 12: Royal Assent for (Bill 33) making 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 also eliminates 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.

Health & Safety

Jun 11: WorkSafeNB is now accepting applications for Psychological Health and Safety (PHS) Grants to support evidence-based initiatives that promote workplace psychological health and safety, especially projects that provide services to New Brunswick first responders, emergency health care workers, and others dealing with trauma on the job or at risk of traumatic psychological injuries (TPIs). Deadline to apply: July 13.

Action Point: Find out how to implement an effective workplace mental health policy for your employees.

Workplace Violence

Jun 12: Legislation (Bill 27) to make it easier for victims of intimate partner violence to sue for money damages received Royal Assent. 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 amendments 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

May 26: WorkSafeNB revised Safety Achievement Financial Incentive System (SAFIS) (Policy 23-610), a voluntary retrospective experience rating program that increases financial accountability for higher or lower than expected claim costs. Under SAFIS, companies are subject to a surcharge if their actual costs are higher than expected based on premiums paid; but they get a refund if their actual costs are lower than expected.

CASES

Termination: Employee Who Signs Severance Release Can’t Sue Union

Told that her job was in peril due to repeated complaints about her conduct, an Education Assistant (EA) with 20 years of service expressed her preference to resign instead. The union negotiated and the EA signed a release awarding her pension and other benefits and indicating, at her request, that she was resigning due to disability to help her CPP application. She later claimed that she was coerced into signing the release and sued the union for not fairly representing her. The court ruled that the EA understood and accepted the release terms and dismissed the case. The New Brunswick Court of Appeal upheld the ruling finding that the judge made no “palpable and overriding error.” It also ordered the EA to pay $2,500 to cover the union’s legal costs for the appeal [Black v. CUPE Local 2745, 2026 NBCA 55 (CanLII), May 28, 2026].

Action Point: Be sure to advise employees to consult their lawyers before they sign a written release. Use the HRI template to draft an enforceable severance release agreement.