Managing Employees' Return To The Workplace

In our earlier two blog posts, Returning the Workplace to Safe Operation: Part 1, Part 2, we addressed the occupational health and safety issues surrounding returning the workplace to safe operation. This blog post addresses the employment issues related to managing the return of employees to the workplace from temporary layoff or working from home. Beyond advising employees of the recall, employers should also be prepared to address the responses received from employees when they are told to return to work.

Recall

For employees who are on temporary layoff, notice of recall should be in accordance with applicable employment standards legislation, if employees are non-union, or in accordance with the terms of the collective agreement, if employees are unionized. Recall under a collective agreement is usually in order of seniority but the specific terms of the agreement should be reviewed.