Ottawa announces plan to extend up to 35 weeks of benefits to parents, legal guardians
Payroll professionals may be processing a new leave for parents with critically ill children starting next summer.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently announced plans for a program that, if legislated, will allow 35 weeks of benefits to parents or legal guardians caring for a critically ill or injured child. Assuming the change goes through, it is expected to start in June 2013.
“When it does come into play, I don’t think there’s actually much that payroll needs to do besides what they would normally do (taking a leave),” Cindy Forget, owner of C.L. Forget Payroll Consulting, based in Ottawa.
The change is also likely to mean a new reason to create a record of employment (ROE) and will require some discussion with HR and management about company policies.
“Number one, it’s going to generate another reason for issuing a record of employment,” said Tina Beauchamp, payroll consultant with the Canadian Payroll Association, based in Toronto.
Record of employment
Payroll professionals need to know when the employee is starting their leave because it will require an ROE.
The record will have to be completed in the same time frame as any other ROE, said Beauchamp.
“A lot of it has to do with internal communication, making sure that payroll is informed when somebody’s going on this type of leave,” she said.
Service Canada hasn’t said whether it will introduce a new code for this type of leave, but if there is a new code it will need to be added to payroll systems, said Beauchamp. “It’s quite likely they will add a code for that, just like there’s a code for maternity leave and sickness, there may be a new code added for that leave,” she said.
Other than the new code, the new leave is similar to any other leave, said Forget. All that will need to be done in the payroll office, after the ROE is completed, will be to put the employee back on payroll when they return, said Forget.
“I wouldn’t treat it any differently than any other leave that an individual’s allowed to take currently,” she said.
Protected leave and company policies
While the federal government might be providing EI benefits for parents, employers and payroll professionals are going to have to pay attention to see if a protected leave is introduced under the employment standards act in the jurisdiction the employee works in.
When the government first introduced parental leave benefits through EI, not all of the employment standards acts actually provided protected job leave, said Beauchamp.
“So you could make a claim for benefits but your employer didn’t have to hold your job for you,” she said, adding sometimes it takes a little while for the acts to be updated and introduce new protected job leaves.
Employers will need to decide if they are going to have a company policy that says employees in this situation will have a protected job leave — even though employment standards may not mandate it — until the act is updated to include it, she said.
If a company already has a policy allowing employees to take a leave when their child is critically ill, employers should think about updating it, said Beauchamp.
A company might consider changing a policy to take advantage of the new benefits.
“So if (the employer was) previously paying the employee’s regular salary and allowing them to have this leave, they could now take advantage of the fact that there’s benefits available from EI and reduce their expense by only providing a top-up,” said Beauchamp.
Employers should update their employee handbook, once the leave is mandated so employees know what their rights are, said Beauchamp.
Forget emphasizes the importance of keeping an eye on possible changes to payroll duties.
“One of the most important things as a payroll professional is to keep updated on legislative change,” she said.
Program shouldn’t be part of EI: Critics
Even thoughit looks very likely the new leave will be part of the employment insuranceprogram starting in 2013, there are critics that think the leave belongs aspart of the program.
“It doesn'tfit into the EI program at all,” said Charles Cirtwill, president and CEO ofthe Atlantic Institute for Market Studies based in Halifax, adding this is aproblem with all kinds of leaves covered under EI, including sick leaves andparental benefits.
“They’reall valuable programs that we require, particularly in an aging society, whichwe are, but tying them to a program that's paid for through the taxation ofjobs makes absolutely no sense at all.”
Fundingleaves like these through other means would take the burden off of jobs makingit less expensive for employers to hire people. It would also stop restraintson the benefit itself, meaning more people would qualify for these benefitswhen they needed them, said Cirtwill.
“They all make perfect sense,they should be as rich as a society like ours can afford but they should not bepaid for through a levy on employment,” he said.
Mancini is a Halifax-based freelance writer.
