Ottawa employment lawyer Alex Lucifero on possible IDEL expiration

Interview Summary

The Ontario provincial government implemented the Infectious Disease Emergency Leave at the start of the pandemic in order to ensure a reprieve for employers and employees combating the closures and losses of COVID-19. Now IDEL after several extensions is set to expire at the end of the month. What will this mean for employees awaiting a return to the workplace?

Alex Lucifero, an Ottawa employment lawyer and Managing Partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP spoke to CTV News Ottawa’s Matt Skube to discuss employee rights and next steps.

Interview Notes

• The Infectious Disease Emergency Leave: Under IDEL employers could place employees on a COVID-19-related layoff. This layoff could occur due to business closures due to public health restrictions, lockdowns, etc. Some employers could exercise this leave of absence in 2020.
• Employees on IDEL expected to return to work: IDEL is currently set to expire on July 30th, 2022. Any employees that are still on a leave of absence or layoff should be called back to work by the end of the month. Employees that are not recalled are considered to be terminated at that point. It is important to remember that many employees on an IDEL layoff do not have to accept the initial layoff and can consider their employment terminated.
• Severance for employees on an IDEL layoff: Non-unionized employees and those employees who do not have a temporary layoff as a term of employment. did not have to accept the initial layoff. Employees that have been placed on a layoff have been constructively dismissed and can pursue their severance pay.