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What are your rights as you return to work in the middle of a pandemic? We asked two employment lawyers What are your rights as you return to work in the middle of a pandemic? We asked two employment lawyers David Aston The COVID-19 crisis has caused profound changes in workplace practices. So it's important to know your legal rights as an employee in this new world of work. We'll take you through some of your legally defined choices that may arise due to COVID-19 if you're subjected to temporary layoff, or you're unable to work, or your employer is restarting operations and calls you back to work. And we'll draw on the advice of two employment lawyers: Stuart Rudner, with Rudner Law based in Markham, who represents both employees and employers, and Louis Century, with Goldblatt Partners in Toronto, who represents employees. (Consult a lawyer before taking action to exercise employment rights.) We refer to rights that apply in provincially regulated workplaces in Ontario, whereas rights that apply to federally regulated workplaces such as banks and railways are somewhat different. Your rights if you've been temporarily laid off The COVID-19 crisis has caused employers to engage in mass temporary layoffs, as well as temporary reductions in hours, and cuts in pay. You have rights to protect yourself in those situations, including new ones introduced in regulations on May 29 under the Ontario Employment Standards Act (ESA). For now, temporary layoffs, reductions in hours, and cuts in pay are deemed to result in an "emergency leave" under the new regulations. The emergency leave provisions apply retroactively back to March 1 and continue to apply until six weeks after Ontario's emergency order is lifted. "They've rewritten history and changed all those (temporary) layoffs into leaves of absence," says Rudner. The emergency leave provisions require your employer to give you your old job back by the end of the emergency period. That makes job protections more explicit and directly linked to the duration of the COVID-19 crisis, compared with prior rights. The regulations also require your employer to continue to pay benefits for new emergency leaves made after the regulations came into effect. However, they won't apply retroactively to layoffs made without benefits initiated prior to May 29, says Rudner. The changes also curtail some employee rights to bring legal action for "constructive dismissal" during the COVID-19 period. Temporary layoffs, reduced hours, and cuts What are your rights as you return to work in the middle of a pandemic?... https://www.mykawartha.com/community-story/10001410-what-are-your... 1 of 4 6/22/2020, 12:33 PM