This post is an excerpt from the following article.
The primary purpose of this article is to examine, in a non-union setting, some instructive British Columbia cases on the “temporary layoff” provision in the B.C. Employment Standards Act (“ESA”) with a view to providing the reader some guidance on the subject matter by setting out governing principles for its interpretation. The author will conclude by suggesting the temporary layoff definition of the ESA should be amended to more clearly reflect the intent of the statute as articulated in recent court decisions.
The ESA, in section 1, provides an exclusive definition of “temporary layoff” as follows:
“temporary layoff“ means
(a) in the case of an employee who has a right of recall, a layoff that exceeds the specified period within which the employee is entitled to be recalled to employment, and
(b) in any other case, a layoff of up to 13 weeks in any period of 20 consecutive weeks;