Pandemic Pay Reminders
$250 LUMP SUM PANDEMIC PAY IS NOT BEHIND OR MISSED
I have heard that some people believe that Fairhaven is behind on it’s $250 pandemic pay lump sums. This is not the case. The misunderstandings seem to come from the fact that the Ministry has specific dates that they want hours to receive panpay.
The dates given by the Ministry as time periods for the application of pandemic pay are not in line with our pay periods and we have no leeway in changing those dates to match our pay periods. Here are the Ministry mandated time periods:
1.April 24, 2020 to May 21, 2020 2. May 22, 2020 to June 18, 2020
3. June 19, 2020 to July 16, 2020 4. July 17, 2020 to August 13, 2020
July 16th fell midway through our last pay period so we needed to calculate the hours for the $250 lump sum after the pay period is calculated and finalized. Because of this, it can’t be paid any earlier than the next pay.
PANPAY ON OVERTIME
Fairhaven has done everything we can to scrape together information to get your money paid out from the beginning when the program was meant to start. The program itself has been difficult to administer from the beginning, in part due to the inflexible dates given by the Ministry and also because of the lack of information given out as the program started. However, Jennifer Hornsby dug in and is probably the most organized payroll administrator in the province with respect to this premium. With respect to OT, the premium for these hours is paid on the same pay as the $250 lump sum. For example, the OT premium for dates between June 19th and July 16th will be on the next pay with the $250 lump sum (if applicable). They have not been forgotten; there is only so much time to devote to extra payroll steps and combining them is the only way we can keep up to date and get the regular pays done.
OTHER REMINDER
The Ministry was also very firm on the fact that pandemic pay can only be given on “worked hours” in the Home. The note below comes from their policy:
3.9 Temporary PP does not apply to time eligible staff are not in the workplace for any reason, including vacation, any authorized paid leave (including sick leave), and time and benefits awarded under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997.
Please consider all Fairhaven COVID-19 Employee Bulletins to be official notifications of consultation with the Fairhaven Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee.
Lionel Towns, CPA, CMA
Executive Director
Comments are closed