Work-Sharing Brochure

Facing difficult times?

When employers face difficulties beyond their control and are forced to reduce their company’s activity, they may have only two courses of action:

  • to lay off employees; or,
  • to make an agreement with affected employees to participate in a Work-Sharing arrangement.

What is Work-Sharing?

The Work-Sharing program enables employers to deal with business cutbacks and still avoid laying off employees. Under a Work-Sharing agreement, employers can shorten their employees’ work week by one half day to three days and pay those employees reduced wages. For the hours, days, or shifts that employees do not work, Service Canada arranges for those employees who are eligible for Employment Insurance to receive benefits, which helps to compensate for the lower wages they receive from the employer.

Win-Win situation

Employees who participate in a Work-Sharing agreement:

  • avoid the hardship of being laid off; and,
  • keep their jobs and maintain their work skills.

Employers who participate in a Work-Sharing agreement:

  • retain valued, skilled employees; and,
  • avoid the expense of hiring and training new employees when work activity returns to normal.

Working together

The employer and the employees must agree to participate in a Work-Sharing agreement and must apply together.

Both the employer and the employees must sign the application and the resulting agreement with Service Canada. All parties must sign the agreement before its start date.

During the period of the Work-Sharing agreement, the employer, the employees, and Service Canada have the right to terminate the agreement at any time.

Duration

The initial duration of a Work-Sharing agreement must be between a minimum of 6 consecutive weeks and a maximum of 26 consecutive weeks. Employers may request an extension of up to 12 weeks. Extensions are not automatic; all requests for an extension must be assessed and approved by Service Canada.

Additional Temporary Work-Sharing Extension:

The temporary Work-Sharing measure made available under Budget 2011 has been extended providing an additional 16 weeks to employers with an active, new, or recently ended agreement. These extensions must end no later than October 27, 2012.

No waiting period for benefits

Participants do not have to serve a two-week waiting period to receive Work-Sharing benefits; however, it may take a few weeks for the first cheque to arrive.

Work-Sharing agreements generally do not affect employees’ rights to regular Employment Insurance benefits if they happen to be laid off after the agreement ends.

Who can participate?

Permanent full-time or part-time employees of a company are eligible to participate in the Work-Sharing program. To receive Work-Sharing benefits, employees must be eligible to receive regular Employment Insurance benefits. To set up a Work-Sharing agreement, there must be at least two participating employees.

How can employers qualify?

To be eligible, employers must have been in business in Canada year-round for at least two years. They must also be able to show that the need to reduce hours is temporary and unavoidable, and is not a seasonal situation.

As part of the application process, the employer must also submit a recovery plan which includes the activities the employer will undertake to recover within the period of the agreement.

Service Canada cannot approve a Work-Sharing application for an employer involved in  a labour dispute.

ROE Web

The easiest way for employers to submit Records of Employment (ROE) once a Work-Sharing application is approved is through ROE Web.

Using ROE Web, employers can:

  • complete one or hundreds of ROEs in minutes at the touch of a button;
  • view, retrieve, and amend ROEs anytime;
  • eliminate mailing costs;
  • save time and increase productivity; and,
  • reduce calls and requests for payroll information from Service Canada.

For more information about the Work-Sharing program