Special Advice to Crown Corporations and Others 2024-002
Subject: Implementation of codes for new Leave without pay regulation
Date: June 15, 2024
Background
New provisions in the Public Service Superannuation Regulations (PSSR) for certain types of Leave without pay (LWOP) came into force (CIF) on June 10, 2021. This legislation aligned the PSSR with new leave options in the Canada Labour Code and Employment Insurance Act.
The following new single rate leave types were adopted:
- Compassionate care-giving leave: Where a contributor is entitled to leave which is taken during a period for which an unemployment benefit is payable to the contributor under section 23.1, 23.2 or 23.3 of the Employment Insurance Act.
- Compassionate care-giving, parental, leave for death or disappearance of a child (applicable only to contributors to whom the Canada Labour Code applies): the leave that is a leave provided for under Division VII of Part III of the Canada Labour Code if the contributor is entitled to that leave under that Act—and the deputy head of the employing department certifies to the Minister that the leave is one provided for under that Division.
- Parental leave within 78-weeks: When a contributor on leave without pay in order to care for their newborn child or a child placed with them for the purpose of adoption, and the leave is taken during a period for which an unemployment benefit may be payable to them under section 23 of the Employment Insurance Act.
Public service health care plan contributions
Employees of Crowns who participate in the Public service health care plan contributions (PSHCP), are required to pay employee contributions only while on leave for any of the new caregiver leave types and any parental leave including the extended parental period. Please refer to the Public service health care plan contributions Directive for more details.
System changes—Creation of new Leave without pay codes in Data Capture Tool
As of June 10, 2021, employees who take parental or compassionate caregiving leave without pay only pay single rate pension contributions, if they choose to count their Leave without pay (LWOP) as pensionable. As no new LWOP codes were established at that time, Pension Centre established a manual workaround to ensure that LWOP deficiencies were costed at single rate.
On June 15, 2024, 5 new LWOP codes will be available in the HR/Pay, Data Capture Tool (DCT) and Pension systems to meet these legislative changes with respect to rate changes and Income Tax Act (ITA) max compliance.
The following new codes are being created in DCT:
- PS:
- Parental leave within the standard period (<= 52 weeks of child’s date of birth or adoption
- PE:
- Parental leave during the extended period (beyond > 52 weeks but within <= 78 weeks of child’s date of birth or adoption)
- CP:
- Compassionate care benefits for end-of-life (Up to 26 weeks)
- CC:
- Family caregiver benefits for children less than 18 who are critically ill or injured (Up to 35 weeks)
- CA:
- Family caregiver benefits for adults 18 years or older who are critically ill or injured (Up to 15 weeks)
Application
The new LWOP codes should be used as of June 15, 2024. Effective the same date, the interim process outlined in Special Advice to Crown Corporations and Others 2021-001 for the compassionate caregiving leave types will be discontinued.
The new caregiving codes will be used when the contributor is in receipt of the related Employment Insurance (EI) benefits. Previous existing caregiving code U will apply for caregiving leave where the contributor is not in receipt of EI benefits.
It has been established that there is no requirement to distinguish parental leave resulting from adoption from parental leave taken following the birth of a child. When the new leave codes are available, leave codes for adoption will no longer be in use.
The two 2 new parental leave codes PS and PE will replace the previously designated parental codes R, S and 03. The old codes are to be used for retroactive adjustments only.
Entering the leave in the Data Capture Tool
Maternity and Parental leave codes procedures
To ensure ITA compliance, the child’s date of birth or adoption will need to be considered when choosing the applicable Parental leave codes. The following codes will need to be sent:
- the Standard Parental leave code (PS) for the portion of parental leave taken within <= 52 weeks of birth or adoption
- the Extended Parental leave code (PE) for the portion of parental leave taken between > 52 and =< 78 weeks of birth or adoption
- maternity code (K) will be used as per usual practice
Maternity and parental codes
| Code | English description | Use for | Replacing codes |
|---|---|---|---|
| PS | Standard Parental <= 52 weeks | Parental leave period that occurs within 52 weeks of child’s date of birth or adoption | R, S |
| PE | Extended Parental > 52 and <= 78 weeks | Parental leave period that occurs after 52 weeks and within 78 weeks of child’s date of birth or adoption | 03 and U or other leave code used to cover this period in the past. |
| K | Maternity leave | Leave for employees who gave birth | No change |
| 5 | Parental leave < 52 weeks (family/birth/adoption) | Care and nurturing of a child within of the DOB or adoption | No change |
Caregiving leave codes
The new caregiving codes will be chosen when the employee is in receipt of Employment Insurance (EI) caregiving benefits.
| Code | English description | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| CP | Compassionate care benefits | An employee is in receipt of EI benefits to care for persons of any age for end-of-life care (up to 26 weeks) |
| CC | Family caregiver benefits for children | An employee is in receipt of EI benefits to care for person under 18 who is critically ill or injured (up to 35 weeks) |
| CA | Family caregiver benefits for adults | An employee is in receipt of EI benefits to care for person 18 years or over who is critically ill or injured (up to 15 weeks) |
| U | Family care | An employee takes LWOP for care of immediate family |
| There is no new LWOP code for this leave type currently. | Death and Disappearance of a child (104 weeks) |
Use existing LWOP code L “Other” when an employee is on LWOP and in receipt of EI benefits for Death and Disappearance of a child. You will need to advise the Pension Centre if the employee is on LWOP for this reason to ensure their contribution deficiencies are calculated at single rate. |
Please refer to Special Advice to Crown Corporations and Others 2010-003, to view updates to the Crown LWOP import file layout.
Annex A: Interim process: Identification of Death and Disappearance leave type for Pension Centre
Code L “Other” will be used in Data Capture Tool (DCT) for leave for death and disappearance of a child. To ensure that the LWOP pension contributions are correctly calculated upon an employees return to work from leave without pay for death and disappearance, notification must be sent to Pension Centre for this specific leave type.
- Use the Leave Application and Absence Report form (GC-178-E) and complete the text box that requests “For all other leave types requested, give reasons here and/or quote article and sub-article of applicable agreement” with the relevant reference to death and disappearance leave the employee has been approved for
- Fill out other basic identifying information, such as:
- Employee Name (first and last)
- Personal record identifier (PRI) and Paylist
- Department
- LWOP to and from dates
- Ensure the form is signed by the approving manager
- Submit the Leave Application and Absence Report form (GC-178-E) to the Pension Centre: tpsgc.dgrgpmatimageriepension-rgpbmatpensionimaging.pwgsc@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca
- Date modified: