{"id":5236,"date":"2022-08-03T14:55:55","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T18:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zeilikmanlaw.com\/?p=5236"},"modified":"2022-08-03T14:55:55","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T18:55:55","slug":"update-on-infectious-disease-emergency-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeilikmanlaw.com\/update-on-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on Infectious Disease Emergency Leave"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Ontario government had made several changes to the Employment Standards Act<\/em>, 2000 (\u201cESA\u201d) related to COVID-19 and the worldwide pandemic. A significant change was the introduction of job-protected infectious disease emergency leave or IDEL which applied during the \u201cCOVID period\u201d of March 1, 2020, to July 30, 2022. IDEL allowed for both paid leave and unpaid leave.<\/p>\n The Ontario government amended the ESA to ensure that eligible employees were able to take up to three days of paid leave because of COVID-19. To that end, the Ontario government has extended this paid infection disease emergency leave or IDEL to March 31, 2023. Paid leave under IDEL has been set to expire on July 31, 2022.<\/p>\n To remind our readers, the Ontario government had enacted unpaid IDEL in the same regulation. The purpose of unpaid leave under IDEL was to temporarily protect employers from claims of statutory notice or severance by employees under Ontario\u2019s Employment Standards Act<\/em> (\u201cESA\u201d) when the employer has laid off the employee due to a downturn in business caused by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Please read more of about this topic please read our blog entitled \u201cLayoff due to COVID? Ontario\u2019s Court of Appeal Needs to Provide Some Answers\u201d here<\/a>. This leave is set to expire on July 31, 2022 and has not been extended by the Ontario government.<\/p>\n Supposedly everything reverts to the way it was before. According to the Ontario government, the ESA rules around constructive dismissal will return meaning that it may be constructive dismissal if the employer reduces or eliminates an employee\u2019s wages or time regardless of whether those changes were due to COVID-19.<\/p>\nOntario Government Extends Paid Infectious Disease Emergency Leave to March 31, 2023<\/h2>\n
What happens to unpaid Infection Disease Emergency Leave?<\/h2>\n