State of Emergency ends in Manitoba, restarting layoff counter

The province-wide state of emergency under the Emergency Measures Act expired with limited notice on Thursday, October 21, 2021 as Manitoba moves toward a post-pandemic state. The state of emergency was first declared on March 20, 2020 and was in place for nineteen months.

As a result, according to the Employment Standards Regulation, the clock starts ticking again for counting the number of weeks of layoff, which had been stopped since March 2020. Should the layoff become a termination, employers must pay wages in lieu of notice based on the employee’s length of service. Termination is triggered after an employee is laid off for a total of 8 weeks within a 16-week period.