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Employment Standards Act Amended
The Employment Standards Amendment Act, 2019 (“Bill 8”) received Royal Assent on May 30, 2019, so Bill 8’s amendments to the Employment Standards Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 113 (the “ESA”) is now in force. Some of the new addition to the final version of Bill 8 were are as follows:
Leave for Victims of Sexual Violence
Employees are now entitled to receive a job-protected unpaid leave of up to 10 days and 15 weeks if they, or an “eligible person” such as their children or a dependent adult person under their care, experience domestic or sexual violence, and wish to request a leave for one or more of the following purposes:
Critical Illness or Injury Leave
The bill has extended critical illness or injury leave up to 36 weeks to care for a critically ill child and up to 16 weeks to care for a critically ill adult.
Employers should be particularly aware of the following amendments which may be important for future reference:
Collective Agreements
Any collective agreement that is made or renewed after May 30, 2019, has to meet or exceed the requirements in the ESA regarding special clothing; hours of work and overtime; statutory holidays; annual vacation and vacation pay; and seniority retention, recall, termination, and layoff.
Retention of Payroll Records
Employers are now required to retain payroll records for up to four years after the date on which the payroll records were created. The former requirement was to retain payroll records for two years after the employment terminates.
These are a few of the many changes included in Bill 8. See our previous bulletin on Bill 8 for a broader overview of (then impending) changes to the ESA.