
Publication
Federal EI pilot project may impact employee separation negotiations
The federal government predicts there will be a surge in EI benefits claims in the coming months.
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Canada | Publication | October 1, 2020 - 12 PM ET
We all know by now that the pandemic landscape is ever-changing. On October 1, 2020, changes were made (yet again) to the COVID-19 leave in the Canada Labour Code. The leave, which currently provides employees who are unable to work for COVID-19-related reasons in federally regulated workplaces, with up to 28 weeks of unpaid job protected leave will be replaced as discussed below.
Employees are entitled to up to two weeks of unpaid job protected leave if they:
To complement this leave period, the government of Canada has also created the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB), coming into force October 1, 2020, which provides a paid sick leave of $500 per week for up to two weeks. The CRSB will cover employees and self-employed persons unable to work for at least 50% of the time they would have otherwise worked in the week, because they:
In addition to these two weeks, employees will also be permitted to up to 26 weeks of leave to care for a child under the age of 12 due to school closures or COVID-19-related reasons, or a family member requiring supervised care who cannot attend regular day care programs or facilities due to closures or other COVID-19-related reasons.
The aggregate time taken under this COVID-19 leave per household must not exceed 26 weeks. In other words, if two or more employees reside in the same household, then the total number of weeks to which all employees are collectively entitled is 26, including for employees from the same household. The leave period may be divided into one or more periods. However, where one or more employees reside in the same household, only one of them can be on leave during any particular period.
Lastly, any COVID-19-related leave taken as of September 30, 2020, will not count towards the new 26-week maximum.
When preparing for what has been officially declared the “second wave” in some parts of the country, employers should recall that federally regulated employees are now entitled to:
These changes replace the existing COVID-19 leave regime in the Code and come into force on October 1, 2020. Further, employers should note the leave periods discussed above may be varied or extended by future regulation.
As the number of COVID-19 cases and school closures continues to rise in many parts of Canada, employers should carefully consider how to properly organize their workforce, keeping in mind the possibility that employee job-protected leave requests may increase in the coming weeks and months.
Publication
The federal government predicts there will be a surge in EI benefits claims in the coming months.
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As ESG concerns have come to the forefront in different jurisdictions, the scope of these inquiries is expanding in kind.
Publication
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