Canada Work Share Program

Canada Work-Sharing

Facing difficult times?

When employers face difficulties beyond their control and are forced to reduce their company’s activity, they may have only two courses of action:

·        to lay off employees; or

·        to make an agreement with affected employees to participate in a Work-Sharing arrangement.

What is Work-Sharing?

The Work-Sharing Program enables employers to deal with business cutbacks and still avoid laying off employees. Under a Work-Sharing agreement, employers can shorten their employees’ work week by one half day to three days and pay those employees reduced wages. For the hours, days, or shifts that employees do not work, Service Canada arranges for those employees who are eligible for Employment Insurance (EI) to receive benefits, which helps to compensate for the lower wages they receive from the employer.

Win-Win situation

Employees who participate in a Work-Sharing agreement:

·        avoid the hardship of being laid off; and

·        keep their jobs and maintain their work skills.

Employers who participate in a Work-Sharing agreement:

·        retain valued, skilled employees; and

·        avoid the expense of hiring and training new employees when work activity returns to normal.

Working together

The employer and the employees must agree to participate in a Work-Sharing agreement and must apply together.

Both the employer and the employees must sign the application and the resulting agreement with Service Canada. All parties must sign the agreement before its start date.

During the period of the Work-Sharing agreement, the employer, the employees, and Service Canada have the right to terminate the agreement at any time.

Duration

Work-Sharing agreements must have a minimum duration of six weeks.

For new agreements beginning on or after April 3, 2011, the maximum initial Work-Sharing agreement duration is twenty-six weeks with a possible extension up to twelve weeks. 

Additional Temporary Work-Sharing Extension:

A temporary Work-Sharing measure has been put in place providing an additional sixteen weeks to employers with an agreement that began prior to April 3, 2011 and is either currently active or has recently ended.  These extensions must end no later than October 29, 2011.

Work-Sharing agreements generally do not affect employees’ rights to regular EI benefits if they happen to be laid off after the agreement ends.

No waiting period for benefits

Participants do not have to serve a two-week waiting period to receive Work-Sharing benefits; however, it may take a few weeks for the first cheque to arrive.

Who can participate?

Permanent full-time or part-time employees of a company are eligible to participate in the Work-Sharing Program. To receive Work-Sharing benefits, employees must be eligible to receive regular EI benefits. To set up a Work-Sharing agreement, there must be at least two participating employees.

How can employers qualify?

To be eligible, employers must have been in business in Canada year-round for at least two years. They must also be able to show that the need to reduce hours is temporary and unavoidable, and is not a seasonal situation.

As part of the application process, the employer must also submit a recovery plan which includes the activities the employer will undertake to recover within the period of the agreement.

Service Canada cannot approve a Work-Sharing application for an employer involved in a labour dispute.

ROE Web

The easiest way for employers to submit Records of Employment (ROE) once a Work-Sharing application is approved is through ROE Web.

Using ROE Web, employers can:

·        complete one or hundreds of ROEs in minutes at the touch of a button;

·        view, retrieve, and amend ROEs anytime;

·        eliminate mailing costs;

·        save time and increase productivity; and

·        reduce calls and requests for payroll information from Service Canada.

For more information about the Work-Sharing Program visit:

Our HR service is convenient and easily accessible website, 24 hours, 7 day a week therefore allowing us to serve small, medium, and large businesses and individuals all over Ontario (ON),Quebec (QC), Nova Scotia (NS),New Brunswick (NB),Manitoba (MB), British Columbia (BC), Prince Edward Island (PE),Saskatchewan (SK),Alberta (AB),Newfoundland & Labrador (NL), Northwest Territories (NW),Yukon (YK), Nunavut (NU).

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