Canada’s defined benefit pension plans’ funded positions continue to improve in 2021, ending the first quarter at their highest levels in more than 20 years, according to Mercer Canada’s pension health index. It found solvency ratios increased from 114 per cent at the end of 2020 to 124 per cent at the end of March 2021, with the median solvency ratio […]
Job-protected leave has been written into British Columbia’s Employment Standards Act to give workers time off to get their coronavirus vaccinations. Labour Minister Harry Bains says the safeguard will ensure that no one will lose their job if they need time away to get vaccinated. The changes allow part-time and full-time workers to take as much […]
Employers are facing a growing number of legal considerations as they continually adapt policies amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a recent webinar hosted by Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie. In Ontario, there’s been a substantial increase in workplace inspections through that province’s occupational health and safety act, said Ted Kovacs, a partner at […]
Canada Goose Inc. is the latest employer to provide employees with paid leave to receive a coronavirus vaccine. The clothing manufacturer, which is headquartered in Toronto with offices and factories across North America and stores around the world, is offering all its staff up to four hours paid leave to get vaccinated, as well as the […]
Arbitrator Dana Randall has ruled that unilaterally-imposed, bi-weekly testing for the novel coronavirus at a Woodstock, Ont., unionized retirement home is reasonable when weighed against the need to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. “The decision tells us that, in this particular environment, mandatory COVID-19 testing is a reasonable exercise of management right given the […]
Coronavirus vaccinations and the US$1.9-trillion fiscal stimulus package are paving the way for the U.S. economy to recover as the world enters the second year of the coronavirus pandemic, in turn driving investor demand for equities and risk assets, according to a recent webinar hosted by Natixis Investment Managers. Esty Dwek, global market strategist at […]
Bridgestone Corp. is offering US$100 payments to its approximately 33,000 employees in the U.S. to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, joining a group of large companies offering incentives to encourage staff to get the vaccine. Just as people around the world face down entering the second year of the coronavirus pandemic, the tire company said it’s […]
Canadian employers are preparing vaccination, remote-work and hiring plans as they look forward to a post-coronavirus pandemic world, according to a new survey from ManpowerGroup Canada. It found only eight per cent of employers will mandate employee vaccinations once vaccines are publicly available, compared to 41 per cent who will let individual employees decide for […]
The issue of employers imposing vaccines in a global pandemic context is unprecedented. Employers will be faced with the difficult challenge of ensuring a safe work environment, without the power to mandate that their employees be vaccinated. Federal and provincial government officials have said that the coronavirus vaccination will be voluntary. Assuming the absence of […]
Canada’s defined benefit pension plans posted a median return of five per cent during the fourth quarter of 2020 and closed a volatile year with a 10 per cent gain, according to Northern Trust Canada’s pension universe. Despite uncertainty from factors including the U.S. presidential election and Brexit negotiations, the last quarter saw global equity […]