Canadian Payroll Reporter

7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 permanent and to extend them to EI maternity and sickness benefits. The changes take ef- fect Aug. 12. Working While on Claim currently allows EI claimants receiving regular, fishing, pa- rental, compassionate care or caregiving benefits to keep 50 cents of their benefits for every dollar they earn, up to a maxi- mum of 90 per cent of their av- erage weekly insurable earnings. The amendments also include a grandfathering provision for EI claimants who chose to re- ceive benefits from a previous pilot project rather than Work- ing While on Claim, which al- lows them to earn $75 a week or 40 per cent of their weekly bene- fit, whichever is higher, without reducing EI benefits. Under the grandfathering provision, they can continue to do this until up to Aug. 2021. Bill C-74 also includes amend- ments to the Canada Pension Plan, including provisions to maintain portability between it and the Quebec Pension Plan. Manitoba New unpaid leave rules implemented On June 4, the Manitoba gov- ernment implemented amend- ments to its Employment Stan- dards Code that increased the length of parental leave and introduced a new leave for em- ployees caring for a critically ill adult family member. The amendments were part of Bill 20, the Employment Stan- dards Code Amendment Act (2), which received royal assent on June 4. Employees may now take a maximum of 63 weeks of parental leave, up from 37 weeks. They also now have up to 18 months after their child is born, adopted or comes into their care and custody to begin the leave, instead of 12 months. Eligible employees may now take up to 17 weeks off work each year, without pay, to pro- vide care or support for an adult family member who is critically ill. To be eligible, employees must have at least 90 days of service with their employer and have a medical certificate veri- fying that the family member is critically ill and needs the em- ployee's care or support. The amendments also expand a 37-week leave for a critically ill child to include employees who are family members of the child. Previously, the leave was restricted to the child's parents. The bill also contains amend- ments that are not yet in force, including those that would al- low employers and employees to agree to average employees' work hours without needing ap- proval from the director of em- ployment standards if the agree- ment meets certain conditions. Among the conditions to be met are the following requirements: • Standard daily work hours could not exceed 12 and stan- dard weekly hours could not be more than 60. • The employee's standard hours of work for the averag- ing period would be deter- mined using the following formula: Standard hours = W x H, where W is the number of weeks in the averaging period and H is 40 or, if the average number of regular hours of work per week during the av- eraging period is less than 40, the lesser number. • The agreement would have to be in writing and be made at least one week before being implemented. • It would have to specify the employee or group of employ- ees taking part and be signed by them and the employer. If made with a group, at least 75 per cent of the employees affected by the agreement would have to sign it. • The agreement could last for no more than three years and would have to include a start date and an end date. • The agreement would have to specify the period over which hours would be worked, with the maximum period being 12 weeks. • The agreement would have to specify the work schedule for daily and weekly hours. • The employer would have to post the agreement at the workplace where employees affected by it would see it. • The agreement would not ap- ply to employees who regular- ly work fewer than 30 hours a week. The bill would also allow the government to raise the mini- mum age for employing chil- dren from 12 years to 13 years. Individuals under 16 would need to take an online work readiness course before being hired. The certificate would re- place a permit that employers must now obtain before hiring young people. The government has not yet announced a date for imple- menting the non-leave-related amendments. New Brunswick Proposed rules provide details on new leave The provincial government has released draft regulations that provide details about new employment standards provi- sions covering leave for domes- tic, intimate partner or sexual violence. The proposed regulations would allow employees to take up to 10 days and up to 16 weeks off if they or their child are a vic- tim of domestic, intimate part- ner, or sexual violence. Employees could take the 10 days intermittently or continu- ously, but they would have to take the 16-week leave in one continuous period. Employers would be required to pay employees for the first five days off. The amount of pay would have to at least equal the amount of wages employees would have earned had they worked regular hours during the leave period. If employees' wages vary, employers would have to pay at least their average daily earn- ings, excluding overtime, for the days worked in the 30 calendar days right before the time off. To be eligible for the leave, employees would have to be em- ployed with their employer for more than 90 days. Employees would be permit- ted to take the leave to: seek medical attention; obtain victim services from a qualified person or organization; obtain psycho- logical or other counseling from a qualified person; temporarily or permanently relocate; seek legal or law enforcement help; and for any other purpose re- lated to or resulting from the violence. Employers would be required to keep all documentation and other information related to the leave confidential. They would be prohibited from disclosing the documen- tation or other information un- less the employee gave written consent, the disclosure was au- thorized or required by law, or the documentation or informa- tion was disclosed to an officer, employee, or agent of the em- ployer who needed it to do their job. The government included provisions for the leave in Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Em- ployment Standards Act, which received royal assent on March 16. However, it did not enact the leave then because it needed to write regulations for it. The gov- ernment has not yet announced when the new leave would come into force. Quebec QPIP premium rates going down The Quebec government says it plans to lower premium rates for the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) on Jan. 1, 2019. The employee rate would decrease from 0.548 per cent to 0.526 per cent, while the employer rate would go down from 0.767 per cent to 0.736 per cent. The government has not yet announced the QPIP maximum insurable earnings for 2019. It is currently $74,000. Saskatchewan Minimum wage rising in October On Oct. 1, the minimum wage rate in Saskatchewan will rise from $10.96 an hour to $11.06. The Saskatchewan govern- ment adjusts the minimum wage rate each year on Oct. 1, using an indexation formula based on percentage changes to both Sas- katchewan's consumer price in- dex and the average hourly wage for the previous year. from BUDGET BILL on page 1 Legislative Roundup CPR | August 2018

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