Changes in payroll laws and regulations from across Canada
Federal
Budget tabled for implementation
The federal government tabled legislation in late March to implement measures proposed in this year’s budget.
Among the provisions in Bill C-74, the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1, are amendments to the Employment Insurance Act that would make the current Employment Insurance (EI) Working While on Claim Pilot Project rules permanent, and extend them to EI maternity and sickness benefits.
The pilot, which was set to expire in August, allows EI claimants receiving certain EI benefits to keep 50 cents of their benefits for every dollar they earn, up to a maximum of 90 per cent of their average weekly insurable earnings.
Manitoba
Labour standards changes on table
The provincial government is proposing to make a number of changes to Manitoba’s employment standards law.
The amendments are included in Bill 20, The Employment Standards Code Amendment Act (2), which was tabled in the province’s legislature on March 20. Among the changes:
•Parental leave would increase from 37 weeks to 63 weeks.
•Employees with at least 90 days of service would be permitted to take up to 17 weeks off work without pay to provide care or support for a critically ill adult family member.
•Leave for a critically ill child would be expanded to include more family members.
•The minimum age for employing children would rise from 12 years to 13 years, with children under 16 needing to take an online work-readiness course before being hired.
•Employers would be allowed to average employees’ hours of work without requiring approval from employment standards if they signed agreements with employees that met specified conditions.
The parental leave and critical illness leave provisions would come into force when the legislation received royal assent. Other provisions would take effect on proclamation.
New Brunswick
ESA amendments get green light
The province’s legislature has passed employment standards amendments designed to help employees deal with family issues. The changes were included in Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Employment Standards Act, which received royal assent on March 16.
The amendments increased the length of child care leave from 37 weeks to 62, with the maximum combined maternity and child care leave rising from 52 weeks to 78.
They also introduced a new leave of up to 16 weeks for employees who need to provide care or support for critically ill family members, and they changed the rules to allow family members beyond a child’s parents to take a 37-week leave for a critically ill child.
Other amendments, not yet in force, will permit employees who are victims of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, or sexual violence to take time off work to deal with the issue.
Nova Scotia
Domestic violence leaves proposed
Proposed amendments to the province’s Labour Standards Code would allow employees who are victims of domestic violence or whose child is a victim to take time off work.
Bill 107, Labour Standards Code (amended), which was tabled on March 29, would provide for an unpaid leave of up to 16 continuous weeks and 10 intermittent or continuous days. To be eligible for the leave, employees would need three months of service with their employer.
Employees could take the leave to: seek medical attention, obtain services from a victim services organization, obtain counselling, relocate, or seek legal assistance.
Quebec
Labour standards amendments tabled
The Quebec government is proposing a number of changes to its Act respecting labour standards that it says will help workers better balance their family and work responsibilities.
The amendments are contained in Bill 176, An Act to amend the Act respecting labour standards and other legislative provisions to facilitate family-work balance, tabled in the National Assembly on March 20.
Among the proposals:
•Employees would be entitled to three weeks’ vacation after three years instead of five years. Employers could choose whether to pay vacation pay in a lump sum before the vacation or when they pay regular pay-period wages.
•A 26-week leave for sickness, organ or tissue donations, accidents, or criminal offenses would be extended to include domestic violence. In addition, employers would have to pay employees with at least three months of service for the first two days of leave each year.
•Employers would be required to pay employees for two of the 10 days they are permitted to take off each year for family obligations.
•The amount of leave employees would be allowed to take for a relative or a person for whom they are a caregiver who is suffering from a serious illness or accident would increase from 12 weeks to 16. For the employee’s child under 18 years old, the leave would be 36 weeks.
•Employees would be allowed to take up to 27 weeks off work to care for a relative or person for whom they are a caregiver, who has a serious and potentially life-threatening illness. For minor children, the leave would continue to be 104 weeks.
•A leave of absence for a child who has disappeared as a result of a suspected crime would increase from 52 weeks to 104 weeks.
•Employees would be allowed to take up to 104 weeks off work if their child under age 18 died of any cause.
•The amount of leave employees may take if their spouse or adult child commits suicide would increase from 52 weeks to 104 weeks. The leave would be expanded to include the employee’s father and mother.
•Employees would be entitled to two paid days and three unpaid days for bereavement leave if their spouse, child (including the child of their spouse), parents or siblings died.
•Employers and employees would be allowed to make agreements to stagger working hours other than on a weekly basis without needing government authorization, as long as the agreements met specified criteria.
•With some exceptions, employees would have the right to refuse to work if their employer did not provide them with at least five days’ advance notice of work.
•For pension plans or other benefits, employers would be prohibited from treating employees differently based solely on their date of hire if the workers do the same tasks in the same establishment.
Some of the amendments would take effect as soon as the bill passes and is given assent. Provisions affecting vacations, paid leaves, and the right to refuse work would come into force on Jan. 1, 2019.
Parental leaves up for debate
The Quebec government is proposing to increase the length of maternity leave and enhance benefits provided under its parental insurance plan.
The proposals are included in Bill 174, An Act mainly to relax the parental insurance plan in order to promote better family-work balance, which was tabled in the National Assembly on March 22. Among other things, it proposes to:
•increase the length of maternity leave from 18 weeks to 25 and extend the period within which Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) maternity benefits may be paid
•extend the period within which employees may take paternity leave from 52 weeks after their child’s birth to 104 afterwards
•extend the period within which employees may take parental leave from 70 weeks after a child’s birth or adoption to 104 afterwards
•extend the period within which individuals may receive parental, paternity and adoption QPIP benefits from 52 to 104.
