Employers in Ontario are required to provide their staff with up to three days of paid infectious disease emergency leave because of certain reasons related to COVID-19. This is in addition to employee rights to unpaid infectious disease emergency leave.
Employers are generally required to pay employees the wages they would have earned had they not taken the leave, up to $200 a day for up to three days.
Eligible reasons for paid leave under this program include:
- going for a COVID-19 test
- staying home awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test
- being sick with COVID-19
- getting individual medical treatment for mental health reasons related to COVID-19
- going to get vaccinated
- experiencing a side effect from a COVID-19 vaccination
- having been advised to self-isolate due to COVID-19 by an employer, medical practitioner or other specified authority
- providing care or support to certain relatives for COVID-19 related reasons
Am I entitled to reimbursement?
Eligible employers are entitled to be reimbursed by the government the amount of infectious disease emergency leave pay that they paid to their employees, up to $200 per employee per day taken.
To be eligible, any one of the following must apply:
- Employee used some paid leave in their employment contract
- Employment contract provided less pay than the Employment Standards Act (ESA) entitlement
- Contract is more restrictive than the ESA
Note you can not cancel your employee’s contractual entitlement to paid leave in order to take advantage of the COVID-19 Worker Income Protection Benefit. Applications for reimbursement of paid infectious disease emergency leave must be made within 120 days of the date the employer paid the employee.
Learn more about the program by clicking here.
If you have any questions as to whether you can apply for reimbursement through this or any other COVID relief program, please give us a call!