There are many employment related challenges created by the
COVID-19 pandemic. On April 15, 2020, the Manitoba government
introduced temporary changes to the province's employment
standards legislation – The Employment Standards
Code (the "Code"). The changes create a new form of
protected leave for employees who are unable to work as a result of
the COVID-19 pandemic. This follows on the heels of a recent
amendment to the Employment Standards Regulation (the
"Regulation") which allows provincially-regulated
employers to lay-off employees during the provincial state of
emergency without triggering entitlement to statutory notice of
termination. Further details of these recent changes follow
