On May 4, 2020 the BC government announced that it has amended
the BC Employment Standards Act to extend the maximum allowable
period for a temporary layoff. Previously, a temporary layoff could
only extend to 13 weeks in a 20-week period before being considered
a permanent layoff/termination. Now the Act allows for a maximum of
16 weeks, which aligns with the length of the Canadian Emergency
Response Benefit (CERB) for employees. It remains to be seen
whether the Act will be further amended in the coming weeks as the
pandemic progresses. We will be watching for any further
amendments.
Over the past several weeks, many employers have tried to
institute temporary layoffs for their employees as their businesses
have been forced to dramatically reduce expenses and/or close
temporarily. For employers who initiated temporary layoffs, they
now have a few more weeks to determine if and when/how they can
reactivate some or all of those employees. These will be
