How to Complete the ROE for COVID-19-Earnings Interruptions

Vaccine refusers may not qualify for EI benefits.

Another reason to hate COVID-19 is that it interrupts employees’ earnings and forces payroll to complete the Record of Employment (ROE) form so that Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) can determine if they qualify for Employment Insurance (EI). The ROE is challenging enough to complete in normal times, especially Block 16 which requires employers to list a code describing the reason for issuing the form. But the pandemic has created novel kinds of earnings interruptions that current codes don’t expressly cover, for example, refusing to come to work when well to defy a mandatory vaccination policy.

New ESDC Guidance on Completing ROEs for Vaccine Refusers

ESDC has issued guidance (on October 15 and December 24, 2021) on filling out the ROE for employees who experience interruptions of earnings due to COVID-19. Here’s a chart consolidating the rules.

ESDC Guidance for Characterizing COVID-Related Interruptions of Earnings in ROE

The practical impact of the ESDC guidelines is that vaccine refusers will be saddled with Block 16 codes rendering them ineligible for EI benefits. The guidance also indicates that if you use any of the E, N or M codes, the ESDC may contact you to find out whether:

• You had adopted and clearly communicated a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy to all employees;
• Employees were informed that failure to comply with the policy would result in loss of employment;
• The application of the policy to the employee was “reasonable within the workplace context”; and
• There were any exemptions for refusing to comply.

Bottom Line: If you apply a mandatory vaccination policy in your workplace, make sure it’s in writing and explains your expectations and the price of non-compliance, particularly if that price is termination.

ESDC Guidance on ROEs of Employees Receiving the CEWS

ESDC also says that if you’re paying your employees with the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), issue an ROE only for those who have an interruption of earnings when the CEWS ends. If employees are still off work, they can apply for EI benefits and the agency will use the ROE to determine if they qualify. Employees who are in insurable employment before receiving the CEWS continue to be in insurable employment once they receive CEWS, if that’s the only thing that’s changed. This is true even if the employee isn’t working while receiving CEWS.

Block 15A-Total insurable hours should equal the number of insurable hours the employee would normally have worked before receiving the CEWS.

Employee off work: Whether an employee continues to receive a full or partial salary while off work, the number of insurable hours for the period of leave doesn’t change. It equals the number of hours the employee would normally have accumulated had they been working during this time.

Block 15C-Insurable earnings by pay period should equal the total amount paid to the employee in each pay period, including any CEWS received. Examples:

• Your employee is paid their normal salary, with 75% coming from CEWS and 25% from you. Because the full amount is insurable, enter this amount in Block 15C;
• Your employee is paid 75% of their normal salary, all of which comes from CEWS. The 75% is insurable. Enter this amount in Block 15C.