The B.C. government has changed its employment regulations to allow employers to extend temporary layoffs up to 16 weeks due to COVID-19 restrictions, to match the duration of federal emergency aid.

The change is to allow more laid-off employees to keep their jobs and employers to restart operations more quickly. Premier John Horgan is expected to lay out details of B.C.B次元官网网址檚 initial lifting of pandemic restrictions this week.

Previously, if a worker was laid off for 13 weeks of any 20-week period, B.C.B次元官网网址檚 Employment Standards Act required that to be treated as a permanent layoff with written notice of termination and severance pay if applicable. Now if the employee agrees, that can be extended to 16 weeks for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.

B次元官网网址淭his change to the Employment Standards Act aligns B.C.B次元官网网址檚 temporary layoff provisions with the federal Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) period,B次元官网网址� Labour Minister Harry BainsB次元官网网址� office said in a statement May 4. B次元官网网址淭he federal period provides 16 weeks of financial support, allowing employees to take full advantage of those benefits.B次元官网网址�

During a temporary layoff, people are still considered employed and any benefits, vacation and leave of absence provisions are protected, according to the .

If employeesB次元官网网址� hours are reduced, they are considered laid off as soon as they earn less than 50 per cent of their weekly wages at the regular rate, measured as an average of the previous eight weeks.

RELATED:

RELATED:

tfletcher@blackpress.ca
Like us on and follow us on .