With the provincial State of Emergency officially lifted as of Sunday, employers are reconciling with a new/old reality as a number of provisions that came along with the SoE were suddenly no longer in effect regarding employees and COVID-19.

Unprepared businesses could have found themselves a little bit stung by a Monday morning where everything about their payroll had suddenly changed after 18 months.

Public Health Emergency Leave:

With the orders removed, unpaid public health emergency leave is no longer available for workers. According to the provisions, workers will still be eligible for job protection if they contract COVID for up to 12 days in a calendar year or 12 weeks in 52 depending on the seriousness of the illness. That also applies to caring for a loved one who is sick with the virus.

Related to the above, residents will still have job protection to be able to access the Canada Recovery Care Giver Benefit (CRCGB) and the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB) if needed.

Temporary Layoff Provisions:

Likely to cause a little more adjustment to businesses as they navigate their way out of the pandemic and into the reopening, it's now time for employers to bring back the workers that they had laid off during the heights of the pandemic.

Businesses have 14 days from July 11, 2021, to either schedule workers back into the workplace under the same terms and conditions that they had prior to the pandemic, or to officially terminate them with pay in lieu of notice.

Following the end of the emergency period, employers can lay off employees for a maximum of two weeks.

Occupational Health and Safety:

With workers returning, employers must take every precaution to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to in general protect the health and safety of workers.

Employers are still required to provide three hours of paid time off for workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.