Applicant Guide
G. Additional Instructions and Information for Employers
This section contains helpful information employers need in order to maintain the Work-Sharing agreement including:
- instructions on completing the Records of Employment;
- instructions on completing the Utilization Report; and
- other important information regarding separations, layoffs and extensions.
i. Records of Employment
A Record of Employment must be provided to each employee who will be participating in the Work-Sharing program. A Record of Employment cannot be issued until the employees have completed their shifts up to the start date of the agreement. Records of Employment can be submitted electronically via the Record of Employment on the Web (ROE Web). If you have not already done so, you will need to register for ROE Web.
To simplify the issuance of Records of Employment, you may wish to consider starting your Work-Sharing agreement at the end of a pay period. Note: All Work-Sharing agreements start on Sundays.
Questions frequently raised:
- Item 11 - This box should reflect the last day of work PRIOR to the start date of the Work-Sharing agreement. For example, if your Work-Sharing agreement starts on Sunday, and your employees work from Monday to Friday, the employees’ last day of work would be the Friday BEFORE the week the Work-Sharing agreement begins.
- Item 16 - The reason for issuing the record should indicate ‘H’ – Work-Sharing.
If you have any questions regarding the completion of the Records of Employment, visit our web site at servicecanada.gc.ca (click on “Employers” and then click on “Records of Employment”) or contact a Records of Employment advisor at the telephone number listed in the "How to Complete the Record of Employment Form" guide.
ii. Enrolment Sheet
To process Work-Sharing benefits for each employee, employers must complete and submit to Service Canada an enrolment sheet which lists all participating employees and their Social Insurance Numbers.
The enrolment sheet may be submitted by courier or through the Data Gateway.
The Data Gateway is a Web-based file transfer tool that was designed to give employers the capacity to send information about their employees electronically to Service Canada through a secure and reliable channel. The Data Gateway User Guide contains important information to assist you in submitting your weekly Utilization Reports.
Benefits of using the Data Gateway:
- you will be able to submit your Utilization Reports electronically through the Data Gateway Web site;
- it is fast, convenient and user-friendly; and
- encryption technology ensures that the information you send is kept safe and secure.
Your organization will be assigned a user ID and password that will be required to login to the Data Gateway Web site. This user ID and password will be provided to you, by letter, at the beginning of your agreement.
Additionally, the letter will provide you with a toll free number for support and will provide direction on how to get an instruction manual and all of the necessary web links.
To protect your employees’ personal information, please do not send any documentation bearing Social Insurance Numbers by email or by fax.
iii. Utilization Reports
To track the percentage of time that Work-Sharing is utilized and to enable Service Canada to determine the benefits payable to your employees, employers who enter into a Work-Sharing agreement are expected to complete a Utilization Report every week.
To obtain an electronic copy of the Utilization report, please click on the version that is the best fit for your organization, based on the number of employees participating in the Work-Sharing agreement.
- For 1-25 employees
- For 26-50 employees
- For 51-100 employees
- For 101-150 employees
- For 151-250 employees
- For 251-350 employees
- For 351-500 employees
For more than 500 employees please contact your Program Officer and they will obtain the appropriate Utilization Report for you.
A visual sample of the Utilization Report is provided for your convenience, however, to enable Service Canada to process your claim, please complete the appropriate Excel version of the form above.
The Utilization Report must be completed weekly beginning the first week of your Work-Sharing agreement as it is required by Service Canada in order to pay your employees.
If you have made a mistake or error on a Utilization Report already submitted to Service Canada, please complete and submit the Amended Utilization Report, updating only the changes required.
Please refer to the table below for instructions on how to complete the Utilization Report. Any questions about completing the Utilization Report should de directed to the Employer Contact Centre (1-800-367-5693).
Agreement Number |
Indicate the number assigned to the Work-Sharing agreement. This is a 7 to 10 digit number and should be input with no spaces or non-numeric characters. |
|---|---|
Employer |
Indicate the name of your business |
Week Starting Date (Sunday) |
Indicate the start date of the week of the reporting period. The date should always be a Sunday and should be inputted in a format that is compatible with your computer, i.e. 26/07/2009, 2009/07/26 or July 26, 2009. |
SIN |
Indicate the Social Insurance Number of the employee. This is a 9 digit number and should be inputted with no spaces or dashes. |
First Name |
Indicate the first name of the employee |
Last Name |
Indicate the last name of the employee |
Normal Weekly Hours |
Indicate the number of hours the employee would work in a normal work week. When the normal weekly hours vary from week to week please average out the work hours for each employee over the last 2 years. For the purpose of the Utilization Report only, indicate the number of hours the employee would have normally worked in the week had there not been Work-Sharing, e.g. 40, if the employee normally worked 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. If the employee was on an irregular work schedule, their Normal Weekly Hours will vary from week to week on the Utilization Report. Example of an irregular work week and the resulting Utilization Report: Looking at this example, Attachment A (completed by the Work-Sharing employer and employees at the beginning of the WS agreement) would indicate NWH of 40 because 40 is the average for the employee’s work schedule [35 + 45 /2]. The Utilization Report, however, will indicate Normal Weekly Hours as 35 in each week one of the work schedule and NWH as 45 in each week two of the work schedule. |
Hours Worked |
Indicate the actual number of hours the employee physically worked including overtime. In a week with a statutory holiday, the hours worked would not include the statutory holiday unless the employee physically worked that day. If the employee does not work any hours in a week with a statutory holiday, you must remember to put the amount of the statutory holiday pay in the “all other amounts paid” column and indicate ‘statutory holiday pay’ in the comments column. If an employee was called in to work and only worked 1 hour but due to labour laws or a collective agreement was paid for 4, the Utilization Report would indicate the 1 hour the employee physically worked not the 4 he/she was paid for. |
Hours Missed Work-Sharing |
Indicate the total hours of work missed by the employee due to Work-Sharing. (e.g. If an employee usually works 40 hours over five days and took one Work-Sharing day, the hours missed would be 8.) If a portion of an hour was worked please round up to the nearest half hour. Any overtime worked by the employee must be deducted from the hours missed due to Work-Sharing. For example, if the employee worked 2 hours overtime the hours missed due to Work-Sharing would be reduced by 2 hours. In a week with a statutory holiday, the hours missed due to the holiday would not be included in the hours missed due to Work-Sharing. If there are unusual circumstances and you are unsure whether hours missed are due to Work-Sharing or not, please consult with your Program Officer. |
Days not available (excluding sick) |
Indicate the number of full days the employee was unable to work for reasons other than sick leave. This number should not be higher than 7. Days not available would include, but are not limited to:
|
|---|---|
Days missed due to sick |
Indicate the number of full days the employee was unable to work due to illness. This number should not be higher than 7. If this column is completed, please ensure the column for ‘paid sick leave amount’ is also completed |
Paid sick leave amount |
Indicate the dollar amount of all sick leave moneys paid to the employee. If other moneys, such as moneys from the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) or the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), are being paid to the employee for sick time, the employer is not obligated to provide the amount on the Utilization Report. They must, however, indicate that a third party is paying the employee by completing the comments column, e.g. WCB for month/day/year. |
All other paid amounts |
Indicate the dollar amount of all other moneys paid to the employee, i.e. vacation pay, statutory holiday pay or money paid upon separation. |
Comments |
Indicate any further information here, e.g. employee is on short/long term disability, or the type of “other paid amounts” received by the employee). If the employee was laid off, quit or dismissed, on leave of absence or suspended, please provide the reason for separation and the date of the separation. All planned shutdowns should be noted in this section. |
Totals |
Provide a total for the amounts in these three columns. * If the form is completed electronically a formula will automatically calculate the totals. |
% of Utilization |
Use formula: Total Work-Sharing Hours Missed ÷ Total Normal Weekly Hours x 100. * The electronic form will automatically calculate this percentage. |
Certified by |
This space must contain the name of the authorized employer representative completing this declaration. Note: This space also needs to be signed if you are submitting a paper Utilization Report. |
Position |
Indicate the position of the authorized representative. |
Date |
Indicate the date the report was completed. |
Phone Number |
Indicate the telephone number of the authorized representative. |
The Utilization Report can be submitted electronically via a Data Gateway.
Sending your Utilization Reports via the Data Gateway is strongly encouraged as it allows us to receive your Utilization Report within an hour of submission thereby ensuring quicker processing of your employees’ benefits.
An employer not using the Data Gateway can mail a disk/CD with an electronic copy (or two paper copies) of the Work-Sharing Utilization Report to the Insurance Payment Operational Centre, for their region, at one of the following addresses:
Atlantic Canada (courier): |
IPOC /Government of Canada Building |
|---|---|
For Atlantic Canada (mail): |
IPOC / Government of Canada Building |
Quebec (courier): |
IPOC |
Quebec (mail): |
IPOC |
Ontario (courier): |
Service Canada |
For Ontario (mail): |
Service Canada 3515 |
Western Canada (mail or courier): |
Service Canada - Work-Sharing |
iv. Amendments/Changes to a Work-Sharing Agreement
The following changes require prior approval from Service Canada:
- agreement extensions
- layoffs
- additions, deletions and substitutions to the Work-Sharing unit(s)
- shutdowns
Employers wishing to make changes to their Work-Sharing agreement must do so using the prescribed “Amendment to a Work-Sharing Agreement” form (EMP 5103) with the necessary information. Please allow at least 30 days for processing. It is essential that both the employer and employee representative sign all such requests for amendments. These changes cannot be implemented until you receive approval by Service Canada. Once approved, please ensure the change is reflected on your weekly Utilization Report under the "Comments" section.
Service Canada must be notified in writing within three days if any Work-Sharing unit members leave the company for one of the following reasons: quit, dismissed, leave of absence, illness, maternity. A letter should be sent to the Work-Sharing Program Officer indicating the name and Social Insurance Number of the affected employee(s), the employee(s)’ last day of work and the reason for departure. The letter must have the signature of the employer representative as well as the employee representative. Please ensure this information is reflected in your weekly Utilization Report under the “Comments” section.
v. Other Employer Obligations
During the life of the agreement, the employer must:
- make information about the Work-Sharing agreement available to all employees and ensure that the Employee Representative distributes a copy of the attached Employee Annex to all members of the Work-Sharing unit;
- report the total hours worked, the hours of work missed due to participation in Work-Sharing and the hours of work missed due to any other reasons for each employee via a weekly Utilization Report;
- maintain all existing benefits. There may be reductions on subsequent payouts of these benefits if, for instance, premiums and payouts are based on a percentage of gross earnings (this is because an employee's gross earnings will be reduced during Work-Sharing);
- advise employees that benefits such as pensions, vacation pay and, in some circumstances, subsequent claims for Employment Insurance benefits, may be affected by participation in Work-Sharing, usually due to employees having lower gross (insurable) earnings;
- maintain proper records of each employee on Work-Sharing during the agreement including wages and any other remuneration paid to those employees each week;
- make such records available, upon request, to Service Canada for inspection and audit;
- report the progress of the recovery plan;
- notify the Service Canada prior to any requested changes to the agreement;
- maintain a schedule of work and track any hours of overtime worked by Work-Sharing employees;
- advise Service Canada of changes to work schedules on a continuing basis. Specific dates and number of employees involved must be included and should be given prior to the change; and,
- schedule at least one half hour of work per week for employees in order for them to qualify for Work-Sharing Employment Insurance benefits.