Effective May 29, 2008, the Employment Standards Act was amended to provide statutory job protection to civilians serving as military reservists in the Canadian Forces.
Previously, military reservists working as civilians did not have a guaranteed right to return to their position upon completion of their deployments, unless such protection had been negotiated contractually.
The new provisions stem from Bill 43, the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act (No. 2), 2008, which includes new provisions to be incorporated into the Employment Standards Act (the “Act”). The new provisions, set out in section 52.2 of the Act, permit reservist employees to take leaves of absence, without pay, when deployed to a Canadian Forces operation outside Canada or to pre-deployment or post-deployment duties in connection with such an operation. Such leaves also extend to reservist employees deployed to a Canadian Forces operation inside Canada for the purpose of providing assistance in dealing with an emergency or its aftermath.
The new provisions require employers to provide a leave of absence for the prescribed period, or, if no period is prescribed, for the period which is necessary to accommodate the Canadian Forces operation. Employers are not required to contribute to any benefit or pension plans during the leave period unless otherwise agreed to in an employment contract or collective agreement.
Similar to other leave provisions, employees wishing to take reservist leave would be required to provide written notice four-weeks in advance of the period of leave. If the employee receives notice of deployment less than four weeks before it will begin, written notice must be provided to the employer as soon as is reasonable and practicable. In addition, the written notification must include the date on which the unpaid leave is to begin and the expected date of return to work. If an employee intends to return to work prior to the date previously specified in the written notification, he or she must give the employer notification at least one week before the date proposed to return to work.
The reservist leave provisions are intended to apply to all employers, regardless of size, covered by the Act. British Columbia joins Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and the federal government in providing job protecting for reservist employees.
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