With the gradual re-opening of businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, employers have had to implement many changes in their operations to meet safety and security guidelines and changing legislation.  In this post, we highlight some recent government changes and announcements along with some frequently asked questions:

Government Changes

1. Temporary Layoff Changes in BC

Under normal circumstances in BC, non-union employees can be temporarily laid off for a period of up to 13 weeks in any consecutive period of 20 consecutive weeks, provided the employee is in agreement with the temporary layoff. A week of layoff is any week where an employee earns less than 50% of their weekly wages, at the regular wage, averaged over the previous 8 weeks.

In light of the COVID-19 emergency, the time period of a temporary layoff was originally extended to 16 weeks on May 4, 2020.  On June 25, 2020, the temporary layoff period was further extended to a maximum of 24 weeks, ending on or before August 30, 2020, in any period of 28 consecutive weeks.  Note that the extension to 24 weeks requires that the temporary layoff is due, all or in part, to the COVID-19 emergency.

This time period is intended to coincide with the 28-week benefit period set out in the federal Canada Emergency Response Benefit (“CERB”).

Should an employer require an extension of temporary layoffs beyond August 30, 2020 because of the impact of COVID-19, you can apply for a variance with the Employment Standards Branch. The BC government has developed a new online application tool to expedite the processing of temporary layoff variance applications.

If your business operates in a different jurisdiction, please consult with the applicable employment standards regulators to determine what changes have been applied to temporary layoffs in your province or territory.

2. Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (“CEWS”) Extension

As discussed in a prior article, the CEWS program provides wage subsidies to eligible employers of 75% of employee wages, up to $847 per week, for up to 24 weeks from March 15, 2020 to August 29, 2020.

On July 17, the federal government announced changes to the CEWS which would:

  • Allow the extension of the CEWS until December 19, 2020, including redesigned program details until November 21, 2020
  • Make the subsidy accessible to a broader range of employers including those with a revenue decline of less than 30% which has been required to date.
  • Provide a gradually decreasing base subsidy to all qualifying employers using a revised method for calculating the wage subsidy.
  • Introduce a top-up subsidy of up to an additional 25% for employers who have been most adversely affected by the pandemic.

Further details regarding the changes can be found here.

3. WorkSafeBC Inspections

WorkSafeBC has been and will continue to conduct inspections during this phase of business reopening.  WorkSafeBC officers may call or visit to check your Safety Plan and evaluate how you’re protecting workers from the virus that causes COVID-19 in your workplace.

Further information about what you can expect during an inspection can be found here.

Frequently-Asked Questions

i) Some of our employees have booked vacation but have asked to cancel their vacation requests because they can’t go anywhere.  Can we make them continue to take their vacation time off as scheduled?

The short answer is, yes, you can ask employees to continue to take their scheduled vacation.

It is certainly understandable that employees are delaying or cancelling vacations because of COVID-19, travel restrictions, and any number of other reasons.  However, employers need to keep in mind that if employees are delaying vacations, then there will be a larger number of vacation requests in the last few months of the year when companies may be in the midst of a recovery and will need those employees working.  Also, employers are required to ensure employees take their statutory vacation time off each year so delaying vacations may mean that too many employees may be off at the same time later in the year.

Our recommendation is to encourage (or require) employees to continue to take their vacation time off, even if they cannot travel as they normally would.  If nothing else, the time off will give them a possibly much-needed break during these extremely challenging times, and assist in preventing burnout and stress.  Proper rest and relaxation are necessary to ensure that employees are able to perform at their best.

Employers can also schedule employee vacation times if employees do not schedule vacations themselves.

ii) How frequently should I be checking in with employees when they are working from home?

There is no specific requirement or recommendation for the frequency of contact.  It is very much dependent on the working relationship, environment and culture.  Some of our clients have daily (and even more frequent) touch points with employees to make sure they are on-track and doing okay.  Others are meeting virtually on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, or less frequently.

Some considerations in determining the appropriate contact frequency for you and your staff include:

  • Connection – When the casual interactions with employees in the workplace basically eliminated with employees working from home, building in ways to connect with staff is important.  These could be quick discussions to just make sure employees are feeling ok during the stress and uncertainty that the pandemic has caused, or it could be regular meetings to discuss progress towards completing tasks, goals and targets.
  • Clarity of expectations – The clearer the performance expectations and targets that you have for an employee, the more time you can have between touch points.  If employees know what is expected of them, and they are productive and efficient, then perhaps discussions are not required for work-related matters, but more discussions are necessary to make sure that employees are able to balance their work/life obligations healthily.
  • Culture – Some workplaces are much more social and interactive than others.  The frequency of connection is reflective of the culture that exists.  If, when employees were all working together in the workplace, there were frequent group events and after work social gatherings, then it is important to continue with these traditions while employees are working remotely when it isn’t possible to meet in person. Virtual gatherings would be a good way to continue enhancing the company culture.  Less interactive workplace cultures may have less frequent social gatherings and meetings.

Erring on the side of caution, more frequent communication is better than less during these uncertain times.

The changing COVID-19 landscape continues to create more questions for employers as we all adapt to changing business operations.  Should you have any HR questions that we can help answer, feel free to reach out to us.  We’d be happy to hear from you.