The Ontario government has once again extended the deemed Infectious Disease Emergency Leave (“IDEL”), which had been set to expire on July 3rd, 2021, and now will end on September 25, 2021. This is good news for employers who have employees on this job-protected leave and are not prepared to bring them back in the...
British Columbia Following in Ontario’s footsteps, British Colombia now requires employers to provide employees with up to three paid sick days where they stay home for the following reasons: Diagnosed with COVID-19 Waiting for COVID-19 test results Need to self-isolate or self-monitor Following a public health order Directed to stay home by the employer because...
Good news for Ontario employers who were wondering how to seek reimbursement for the paid sick days mandated back in April. The government has finally updated their website to include a button to claim the paid sick days. For details related to the program please refer to our e-alerts here and here. The link for...
A recent Ontario case (Coutinho v. Ocular Health Centre Ltd.) has confirmed what most employment lawyers had suspected – placing an employee on a deemed Infectious Disease Emergency Leave (“IDEL”) can constitute a constructive dismissal at common law. By way of reminder, deemed IDEL is essentially a temporary layoff due to COVID-19 reasons (i.e. when...
As a follow-up to our April 30th Alert where we outlined the new COVID-19 Putting Workers First Act, which required employers to provide three paid sick days to most of their employees, we now have further clarity from the Ministry of Labour regarding when an employer will be exempt from providing some or all of...
On May 7, 2021, the Manitoba provincial government announced the Pandemic Sick Leave program to provide employers with up to $600 per employee for up to 5 days for COVID-19 related sick leave. This includes time off for testing, vaccinations and side-effects, self-isolation due to COVID-19 symptoms, or care of a loved one in any...
The Ontario government has passed the new COVID-19 Putting Workers First Act, which will mandate employers to provide three paid sick days to most employees. Provincially regulated employees (federally regulated employees do no not qualify for these days) will be able to take these three days if they are: going for a COVID-19 test staying...
The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal recently refused to hear a case regarding an employee’s objection to wearing a mask at work. In The Worker v. The District Managers (2021 BCHRT 39), the employee told his manager that wearing a mask was against his “religious creed”. He was sent home from work and subsequently terminated....
Following last week’s e-Alert, where we noted that Alberta was expanding its unpaid personal and family responsibility leave to include getting the COVID-19 vaccine, the province has now changed course and will allow for three hours of paid time off to get the jab. This has already taken effect. As a recap, Saskatchewan and Alberta...
British Columbia has become the second province (joining Saskatchewan) to provide a new job-protected leave for employees getting the COVID-19 vaccine. In particular, this new leave allows employees to take unpaid time off work to get the COVID-19 vaccine themselves or to take dependent family members to get vaccinated. The B.C. government concurrently announced in...