Clarifying workplace injury obligations, pay requirements for employees awaiting WCB benefits
Obligations for paying employees on day of workplace injury
Question: If an employee suffers a workplace injury and cannot complete his or her work shift that day, what are the employer’s obligations under workers’ compensation laws for paying the employee his or her wages for the day? Our employees are not covered by a collective agreement.
Answer: The answer depends on the jurisdiction where the employer is registered for workers’ compensation coverage, as the following table shows:
Note: Federal government employees are entitled to receive compensation under the same conditions as private-sector employees covered by the workers’ compensation legislation of the province in which the federal employee works. However, Crown employees normally employed in Yukon, Northwest Territories or Nunavut are considered to be employees in Alberta for workers’ compensation purposes.
Pay requirements for employees awaiting workers’ compensation board benefits
Question: Are employers required to pay employees their wages or salary while they are off work, waiting to find out if the workers’ compensation board will accept their claim?
Answer: In all jurisdictions, but Quebec, employers are not required to continue paying employees who are off work awaiting a decision on their workers’ compensation claim.* In fact, in New Brunswick, workers are required to serve a three-day unpaid waiting period before receiving workers’ compensation benefits. In Quebec, employers must pay employees 90 per cent of their net wages or salary for the first 14 days after the day of the workplace injury.
*Note: In Ontario, employers must continue to pay their contributions for health care, life insurance and pension benefits for the employee for one year while the worker is absent because of the injury, provided that he or she continues to pay his or her share (if any) of the cost.
Standby hours and employment insurance: How exactly does the process work?
Question: We require some of our employees to be on standby in case we need to call them to work. The employees do not have to wait at the workplace, but they have to carry a cell phone with them so that we can reach them if needed. We pay the employees a portion of their regular hourly rate (above minimum wage) for the standby hours. How do we treat this standby time for employment insurance purposes?
Answer: In this case, the hours are not insurable. The hours an employee is on standby somewhere other than at the workplace are insurable only if the employer pays the employee at least the rate that it would have paid had the employee actually worked the hours. If the employer requires that the employee be at the workplace for the standby time, the hours are insurable regardless of the amount paid.
