Ontario COVID-19 Worker Income Protection Benefit
no fixed amount
Subsidy
Description:
As of April 19, 2021, employers are eligible for reimbursement of paid infectious disease emergency leave. Employers may be eligible to be reimbursed for payment up to a maximum of $200 per day for up to three (3) days per employee, made to an employee for paid infectious disease emergency leave taken under subsection 50.1.1(1.2) of the Employment Standards Act (ESA).
Comments on Funding:
Eligible employers are entitled to be reimbursed the amount of infectious disease emergency leave pay that they paid to their employees, up to $200 per employee per day taken.
Eligibility:
Employers are eligible for reimbursement of paid infectious disease emergency leave if any one of the following apply:
1. Employee used some paid leave in their employment contract before April 19, 2021 so that they didn’t have at least three days of paid leave remaining. In this situation, the amount of reimbursement an employer would be entitled to depends on the number of days the employee has remaining under the employment contract.
2. Employment contract provided less pay than the ESA entitlement (generally the wages the employees would have earned had they not taken the leave, up to $200).
3. Contract is more restrictive than the ESA. For example, an employee is sick with COVID-19 and their employment contract requires a doctor’s note for paid sick days. Under the ESA, an employee is not required to provide a doctor’s note for paid infectious disease emergency leave (IDEL). If the employee takes paid IDEL under the ESA, the employer would be eligible for reimbursement.
Application Steps:
Employers:
1. must submit claims to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to get reimbursed for paying their employees the Ontario 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, or by July 29, 2023 (whichever is earlier). The WSIB cannot process applications submitted after 120 days of the payment date;
2. can submit applications for up to 10 employees at a time using the regular process. We recommend using this process to submit applications for up to 50 employees;
3. that need to submit applications for over 50 employees, can register to submit a bulk application when they complete the intake form. After registration they will receive detailed instructions on how to provide the required information.
It takes approximately three weeks to process an approved claim. The timing depends on the completeness and complexity of the claim.
Documentation Needed:
No specific documentation has been identified.
Other Things to Note:
May 2024: This program is no longer available. “This page is no longer current and is provided for archival and research purposes.”
1. The Worker Income Protection Benefit program is no longer accepting new applications. 2. Employers can only apply to be reimbursed for a maximum of three calendar days, even if they chose not to count part days as full days of paid leave. For example, if an employee took a half day of paid leave on a Monday, two full days of paid leave on the Tuesday and Wednesday and an additional half day on the Thursday, the employer can only apply for reimbursement of three of these days.
3. An employer is not entitled to be reimbursed for payments made to an employee for paid infectious disease emergency leave under the Employment Standards Act (ESA) if either:
a) the employee received WSIB benefits for the same days of leave,
b) the employer cancelled or rescinded the paid leave offered to their employees as part of an employment contract on, or after, April 19, 2021.
In other words, an employer cannot cancel their employee’s contractual entitlement to paid leave in order to take advantage of the COVID-19 Worker Income Protection Benefit.
Updated: July 26, 2022
About the author
Maurice
