Buy a unionized Ontario business and its collective agreement binds you whether or not you agree. Labour Relations Act, 1995 section 69(2) binds the purchaser “as if the person had been a party thereto”, on the sale itself. There is no adoption step, an asset purchase sits inside the section, and only the Ontario Labour Relations Board can declare otherwise.
Key takeaways
SECTION 01 OF 10
The Act groups sections 68 and 69 under its own heading, Successor Rights. Section 69 is marginally noted Sale of business, subsection (2) Successor employer. Where an employer bound by a collective agreement sells its business, “the person to whom the business has been sold is, until the Board otherwise declares, bound by the collective agreement as if the person had been a party thereto”.
Three things follow: the buyer is bound without doing anything, it binds at the sale and not on a later finding, and only a Board declaration undoes it. Treadstone Law on a collective agreement surviving a sale draws the line — a share deal never changes the employer, so section 69 is what works in an asset deal.
It also catches a deal closing mid-proceeding: sell “while an application for certification or termination of bargaining rights” is pending, and the buyer inherits it.
SECTION 02 OF 10
Section 69(1) defines both parts broadly. A business “includes a part or parts thereof”, and selling “includes leases, transfers and any other manner of disposition”. Leasing the operation is a sale. Note also what subsection (2) omits — any condition that the purchaser hire anyone, where the employment-standards rule begins with a purchaser who employs an employee of the seller.
Treadstone Law on renaming a business to shed a union is blunt about the cosmetic version; its answer on buying some of the contracts takes partial deals.
SECTION 03 OF 10
Section 69(3) covers the gap. Where a certified union’s employer sells, it “continues, until the Board otherwise declares, to be the bargaining agent for the employees of the person to whom the business was sold” in the like bargaining unit. Certification belongs to the unit and moves with the business.
The union may then serve the buyer with “written notice of its desire to bargain with a view to making a collective agreement”, with the effect of a section 16 or 59 notice. A buyer closing between agreements has bought a bargaining agent and a duty to bargain; Treadstone Law on dues and membership has the employee view.
SECTION 04 OF 10
Section 69.1, in force 1 January 2018, covers services related to servicing premises — the Act names building cleaning, food services and security. Where employees work at their principal place of work and their employer stops providing the services, a sale is deemed for section 69 “if substantially similar services are subsequently provided at the premises under the direction of another employer”.
Contractor succession wearing a sale-of-business label: win a cleaning, security or cafeteria contract where the incumbent was unionized, hire nobody, buy nothing, and section 69 still reaches you. Subsection (2) excludes only construction, non-cleaning maintenance and non-food goods. Treadstone Law’s diligence checklist starts with the agreement, its schedules, side letters and memoranda of understanding.
SECTION 05 OF 10
The whole instrument, not the wage grid. Section 56 makes an agreement “binding upon the employer and upon the trade union that is a party to the agreement” and on the employees in the unit. Seniority, layoff and recall language binds the buyer on day one.
Two terms are statutory whatever the paper says. Section 46: “Every collective agreement shall be deemed to provide that there will be no strikes or lock-outs so long as the agreement continues to operate.” Section 48(1) requires “the final and binding settlement by arbitration, without stoppage of work” of all differences under it, “including any question as to whether a matter is arbitrable”; subsection (2) deems that clause in where it is missing.
So is timing: under section 58(1) an agreement silent on its term “shall be deemed to provide for its operation for a term of one year”. Renegotiation waits for expiry, not closing — see the exact terms, open grievances, the procedure.
SECTION 06 OF 10
The first is short-dated: section 69(5) requires an application “within 60 days after the successor employer” becomes bound, and rights end only if, in the Board’s opinion, the buyer “has changed its character so that it is substantially different from the business of the predecessor employer”. Sixty days is not long to find a union you did not price.
The second is section 69(6), where the buyer runs other businesses and “intermingles the employees of one of the businesses with those of another”. The Board may then “declare that the person to whom the business was sold is no longer bound by the collective agreement” and settle which units and unions remain. Section 69(4) decides narrower questions such as “what constitutes the like bargaining unit”. Every exit runs through an application; none is self-help.
SECTION 07 OF 10
Section 69(12): where it is asked whether a business has been sold, “the Board shall determine the question and its decision is final and conclusive for the purposes of this Act”. Section 69(13) puts the disclosure burden on the deal parties, who “shall adduce at the hearing all facts within their knowledge that are material to the allegation”.
Two provisions close the door: section 114(1) gives the Board “exclusive jurisdiction to exercise the powers conferred upon it by or under this Act”, and section 116 that “No decision, order, direction, declaration or ruling of the Board shall be questioned or reviewed in any court”. Rule 15 of the Rules of Procedure (June 2026) governs, on Form A-24, “Application under Section 69 and/or Subsection 1(4) of the Act”, on the forms index. The Board has bulletins on many case types but none on this one.
SECTION 08 OF 10
Buying assets rather than shares to leave the union behind is the first. It fails because the section reaches dispositions of every kind, and whether a sale occurred turns on what moved, not the label. Treadstone Law says it three ways — asset versus share purchase, what structure limits, forcing recognition in an asset deal.
Declining to hire the seller’s unionized staff is the second. Section 69 compels nobody to hire — but the motive is regulated. Section 72(a) bars an employer acting to “refuse to employ or to continue to employ a person” … “because the person was or is a member of a trade union”, and section 70 separately bars interference with a trade union.
The evidence rule makes that expensive. Section 96(5) puts “the burden of proof that any employer or employers’ organization did not act contrary to this Act” on the employer, section 96(4)(c) allows “an order to reinstate in employment or hire the person or employee concerned, with or without compensation”, and section 96(6) lets that be filed in the Superior Court of Justice and enforced as its order.
SECTION 09 OF 10
Section 1(4) is the companion tool, aimed at structures not sales. Where, in the Board’s opinion, “associated or related activities or businesses are carried on” … “under common control or direction”, it may treat them “as constituting one employer for the purposes of this Act”.
That reaches a buyer who never bought the unionized entity — a new affiliate taking the work, or an acquirer running union and non-union work under one head. One form, A-24, covers section 69 and/or subsection 1(4): restructuring that leaves common control intact just moves the argument.
SECTION 10 OF 10
Collect the agreement and schedules, its expiry, certification documents, outstanding grievances and awards, and any notice to bargain — then diarise the 60-day section 69(5) window. Treadstone Law on buying a unionized business, successor rights, carry-over, trades businesses and grieving the sale covers the commercial side.
This is not employment-standards continuity — a different statute, a different question. ESA section 9(1) deems that “the employment of the employee shall be deemed not to have been terminated or severed for the purposes of this Act”, and section 9(2) switches that off where the purchaser hires “more than 13 weeks after the earlier of his or her last day of employment with the seller” and the sale. Section 69 has none. Siblings on Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Québec and federal employers cover it, as do Treadstone Law on ESA liability in an asset purchase, generally and on retroactivity.
Two boundaries. This is Ontario labour relations law; every province has its own successor provision, and none is described here. A federally regulated business is outside the Act — Canada Labour Code section 44(2)(c), marginal note Sale of business, binds a buyer to “any collective agreement that is, on the date on which the business is sold, applicable to the employees employed in the business”. And everything here comes from statutory text: OLRB decisions were not retrievable from any source this page could read, so none is cited.
No. Section 69 defines a business to include a part of a business, and defines selling to include leases, transfers and any other manner of disposition — an asset deal, a lease, or a sale of just one division all sit squarely inside the section.
No. Section 69(2) binds the purchaser automatically, as if they had been a party to it, from the moment of the sale — there is no adoption step, and the agreement transfers by statute rather than by the buyer’s signature, assumption or assignment.
60 days. Section 69(5) requires the application within 60 days after the successor employer becomes bound, and it succeeds only if the Board finds the business has changed so much it is substantially different from the seller’s.
Sources
