Congress Makes Additional Paid Family Leave and Paid Sick Leave
Optional
The dust has now settled on the new stimulus bill signed by
President Trump on December 27, 2020. The changes to the Family
First Coronavirus Recovery Act (“FFCRA”) was buried in
over 5000 pages of text and provides a choice for employers to
continue paid leave benefits to their employees as follows:
Congress extended the tax credits for employers who provide
both paid sick leave and paid family leave through March 31, 2021.
Those credits will continue to be processed as they have been under
the FFCRA.
Congress did not extend the mandatory requirement to provide
On January 1, 2021, the
Canada Labour Code ( the
Code ), which applies to federally regulated employers, will
be amended to add a new Part IV, titled Administrative
Monetary Penalties. The purpose of Part IV is to establish an
alternative penalty system to promote compliance with Part II
(Occupational Health and Safety) and Part III (Standard Hours,
Vacations, and Holidays) of the Code. The government has indicated
in a Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement that this
new penalty system is necessary to curb what it views as widespread
non-compliance with the Code in the federal sector.
Part IV introduces the following key measures to promote
While the Code on Wages, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as
“
the Code”) received Presidential
assent on August 08 2019
1, the Government was
yet to notify the effective date of the Code coming into force. The
Code has unified and subsumed four different acts, namely the
Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the
Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976
(collectively “
Existing Legislation”).
The implementation of the Code is expected to have wide ranging
implications for a majority of stakeholders. Under Section 1(3) of
the Code, the Central Government has the power to issue
notification in the official gazette to appoint different dates for
In recent years, Ontario courts have frequently ruled on
employers termination obligations under the
Ontario
Employment Standards Act, 2000. However,
Ontario courts do not often adjudicate matters related to the
enforceability of termination clauses under the
Canada
Labour Code, RSC 1985, c L-2
(
CLC ). In
Sager v
TFI International Inc.
1, the Ontario Superior Court
of Justice considered a federal employer s obligations when
terminating an employee under the
CLC and
confirmed that any termination provisions agreed upon in an
employment agreement must maintain all terms and conditions of the
employment during the notice period.
Facts
The Plaintiff worked as the Vice-President of Sales and Customer