Focus On Employment, Labour & Pensions - October, 2009.

Extract

---

Focus On Employment, Labour & Pensions - October, 2009.

Contents

Avoiding Temporary Layoffs: The Work Share Solution

Pandemic Planning: Ensuring That Your Organization Is Prepared

Temporary Foreign Workers And Labour Unions

Buzz About A New National Pension Plan: What's It All About?

Making A Medical Breakthrough - How To Get More Than A One-Line Medical Note From Your Absent

Ontario Moves To Deal With Workplace Harassment And Violence

Client Seminars

AVOIDING TEMPORARY LAYOFFS: THE WORK- SHARE SOLUTION By Matthew J.G Curtis

The popularity of employee furlough programs in the United States has increased in the economic recession. A furlough is a temporary period when employees take unpaid leaves from work in response to slower business activity.

In Canada, employers should be aware of the Work-Share program, which is a temporary adjustment program offered by the Federal Government allowing employers to avoid instituting temporary layoffs. Where a reduction in business activity is temporary, unexpected, unavoidable and beyond the control of the employer, the Federal Government provides eligible employees with income support through the Employment Insurance system. Eligible employees can collect Employment Insurance benefits for the time they normally would have worked before the reduction of work hours. The 2009 Budget increased the number of weeks an employee can collect Employment Insurance benefits under the Work-Share program to 52 weeks for applications received on or after February 1, 2009 but before April 3, 2010. The previous maximum duration was 38 weeks. The minimum duration of Work-Share benefits is six weeks.

In order to qualify for the Work-Share program, an employer must meet the following criteria:

They have been in year-round business in Canada for ...

See the full content of this document

---