Human Resources Legislative Update
Ontario Introduces Process for WSIB to Recover Overpayments Made to Employers with Respect to Paid IDEL
Date: September 9, 2021
On September 3, 2021, the Ontario government filed O. Reg. 637/21 made under the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA). The regulation sets out the process by which an overpayment made by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) for paid infectious disease emergency leave (Paid IDEL) may be recovered from an employer.
As we reported in our FTR Now of May 6, 2021, the government passed Bill 284, COVID-19 Putting Workers First Act, 2021 to provide eligible employees with up to three days of paid emergency leave in circumstances of absences relating to a designated infectious disease. Employers who provide Paid IDEL to eligible employees are entitled to reimbursement through the WSIB, up to $200 per employee per day taken.
O. Reg. 637/21 now sets out details regarding the process that allows the WSIB to recover overpayments from employers with respect to Paid IDEL.
O. Reg. 637/21 permits an employment standards officer (ESO) to investigate whether the WSIB made an overpayment to an employer. Where an ESO finds there has been an overpayment, they may order the employer to pay the amount of the overpayment, payable to the Minister of Finance. Orders for overpayment recovery must include information setting out the nature of the overpayment, or be accompanied by that information and be served upon employers.
In addition to the overpayment amount, an order for repayment will also include an administrative fee equal to the greater of $100 and 10 per cent of the overpayment amount, payable by the employer to the Director of Employment Standards, in trust.
The regulation also sets out the following:
- a limitation period for issuing a repayment order
- the process for a review of an ESO order
- details regarding collection of overpayments from employers.
O. Reg. 637/21 came into force on the day it was filed, September 3, 2021.
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