Government Benefits and Bringing Employees Back: The CERB and CEWS

This week in Ontario many businesses are re-openingThis week in Ontario many businesses are re-opening. Employers and employees alike have questions about going back to work and the intersection of re-starting businesses with the various government subsidies that have been tiding many people over. 

Bringing Employees Back to Work Using the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS)

Many employers have laid off a good portion of their workforce and now with re-opening are looking to bring some of those workers back. Businesses that have been hit hard financially may be able to take advantage of the CEWS while earnings are still uncertain as business ramps back up. Getting the CEWS for employees who have been laid off is a little complicated because of the definition of an eligible employee. But first, let’s look at eligible employers. 

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Considerations for Employers as We Return to Work

Considerations for employers as the provinces are opening back upThe provinces are opening back up and various guidance has been issued to employers regarding how to do so safely, but the virus still exists and it’s still contagious. Governments who have been encouraging people to stay home are now contemplating how to get people to go out when really conditions regarding the virus have not drastically changed. This juxtaposition will have an impact on workplaces. 

Employee Work Refusals

We can anticipate that some employees will refuse to come back to work, even if they have been recalled and even where the employer has followed government guidance on how to make a return to work safe. What should employers do with these employees?

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Re-opening Your Business During COVID-19

re-opening during COVID-19Many provinces across Canada have started the process of re-opening businesses. In Ontario, a select few seasonal businesses have been allowed to open this week with restrictions. These include seasonal businesses and some essential construction. Check out the Provincial News Release for the details. 

While the list is still very short, we can be sure that, eventually, society will be back up and running, but it may look a little different. 

Guidance from the Government

The Federal and Provincial governments have released an agreed-upon set of common principles to follow with respect to re-opening. The statement includes a commitment to support and monitor workplace protocols that are in place to keep Canadians safe at their jobs, and prevent the introduction and spread of COVID-19.

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How Can I Afford Legal Advice if My Business is Sinking?

Can I Afford Legal AdviceHow Can I Afford Legal Advice?

Many employers are facing rock hard choices right now: layoff on shaky legal ground or go bankrupt? Let some employees go, but how to afford termination pay? Offer more than ESA minimums to get a release or risk a claim down the road?

Since early March 2020, we’ve found ourselves regularly telling clients what the technical legal answers are, and then we quickly move to the COVID-19 business reality solution. This new world order is not going away anytime soon and I fully anticipate some new law coming out of this unique moment. Employers cannot afford payroll but employees cannot mitigate their job loss in this job market – so everyone is turning to the pandemic economic crisis as the reason for paying less termination pay or for demanding more of a package. Courts will have to somehow reconcile these competing interests, each of which is based on the same underlying issues caused by COVID-19.

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Rightsizing Your Workforce During COVID-19

resources for employers during COVID-19Unchartered Workplace Waters

For many entrepreneurs and small businesses, the impact of COVID-19 has resulted in unprecedented losses in a short period of time.  It has been a time of incredible stress, uncertainty and countless questions about how you can stay afloat, best manage your team and, eventually, rebuild. 

At SpringLaw, we have been navigating these unchartered waters with our employer clients.  We know how small businesses have been struggling and how business owners are laying up at night wondering how they will see it through to the other side of this tremendous business disruption.

You Are Not Alone!

As an employer, you know you need to pivot and resize your business. You want to do best by your employees, your business model and your own employment.

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Working Safely From Home

working from homeWhat are the employer’s obligations to an employee when an employee is not working in the office? With so many employees now working from home, employers’ health and safety obligations need to be reexamined. 

The Occupational Health and Safety Act and Working From Home

In Ontario, section 3(1) the Occupational Health and Safety Act (“OHSA”) states that it “does not apply to work performed by the owner or occupant or a servant of the owner or occupant to, in or about a private residence or the lands and appurtenances used in connection therewith.”

So, in regular people speak, this means that if your employee is working in their own home OHSA does not apply. 

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