Glossary
In Injured at work, WSIB benefits, Getting injured, Reporting an injury
If you do not agree with a decision that the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) makes, you can ask them to review and change it. This is called asking for a reconsideration. For example, you might disagree with a decision about qualifying for benefits, how much money you get, or how long you can get benefits.
Usually, the person who made the decision reconsiders it. But sometimes the person’s manager does.
When you ask for a reconsideration, you can give new information and documents that the WSIB did not have when they made the original decision.
The Record of Employment is a form that your employer must fill out every time you experience an interruption of earnings. The Record of Employment has information like how long you worked for your employer, how many hours you worked, and how much money you earned. Your employer has to choose from a list of reasons why you stopped working or stopped being paid. For example, you might have quit, got fired, been laid off, or be taking a leave of absence from work.
In Criminal Law, Employment and Work, Human Rights, Refugee Law
A record suspension used to be called a pardon. If you have a criminal record, you may be able to apply to the Parole Board of Canada for a record suspension. If you get a record suspension, your criminal record is not erased. But it is set aside and you can say you do not have one.
There are rules about how long you have to wait to apply and what you need to show for your application to be successful.
You might qualify for regular EI benefits when you lose your job or stop working for reasons beyond your control.
The Employment Standards Act says that regular wages means wages you earn, not including any of the following:
- overtime pay
- holiday pay
- premium pay
- pay for a domestic or sexual violence leave
- termination pay
- severance pay
When your employer punishes you for trying to use your legal rights, this is called a reprisal. It’s against the law for an employer to do this. An employer might punish you by:
- suspending you,
- changing your work,
- changing your shifts or reducing your hours, or
- giving you a warning or threatening you.
Severance pay is not the same as termination pay or pay in lieu of notice. The Employment Standards Act gives some people the right to severance pay when they lose their jobs.
You get severance pay only if you’ve worked at least 5 years for your employer and:
- your employer pays wages of at least $2.5 million a year, or
- at least 50 people will be losing their jobs within a 6-month period because the business is being cut back.
The basic rule is that severance pay is one week’s pay for each year you’ve worked for your employer, up to 26 weeks.
If you’re a temporary foreign worker in Canada, sexual abuse means that your employer does things like:
- force you, with or without a weapon, into sexual acts that you do not want
- use physical force or threaten you so you’ll have sex with them
- force you to have sex with other people who you do not want to have sex with
- force you to have sex when you’re not able to give consent because of an illness or disability, or because you’re under the influence or alcohol or drugs
In Employment and Work, Income Assistance
A Social Insurance Number (SIN) is a 9-digit number that you need to work in Canada or to use government programs and get benefits.
You might qualify for special EI benefits if you need time off work for certain reasons. Special EI benefits include maternity, parental, sickness, compassionate care, and parents of critically ill children benefits.