Who is eligible

Tariffs: Special measures

From March 7, 2025 to March 6, 2026, there are special measures in response to the threat or potential realization of tariffs. More details can be found under ‘Special measures'.

Eligible employers

To be eligible for a Work-Sharing agreement, your business or organization must:

• be a year-round business operating in Canada for at least 2 years:
  • The 2-year requirement ensures sufficient evidence to identify the business regular work patterns, employment levels and schedules to establish the employer’s normal level of business activity.
• be a private business, a publicly held company or a certain type of non-for-profit:
  • A publicly held company is a for-profit company whereby its shares/stocks are owned by the general public. Public sector employers, including government or publicly owned corporations, such as crown corporations, are not eligible for Work-Sharing.
  • Non-profit organizations are eligible if they engage in activities where they retain the profit to support the goals of the organization. Temporary layoffs in a non-profit organization resulting from a reduction in revenue levels alone (such as reduced grants, donations, memberships, investment income or other disruptions in funding streams) do not meet the Work-Sharing eligibility criteria.
• have experienced a decrease in overall work activities of at least 10% in the last 6 months to qualify for the Work-Sharing program.
  • This decrease cannot be limited to financial factors such as sales or revenues; it must also show that there is less work available for employees participating in Work-Sharing.
  • Employers must demonstrate this decrease by specifying how many hours of work were lost, comparing factors such as sales, production levels, hours worked, stock levels, new orders, etc. with those from the previous quarter or year.
  • The decrease in work activities must be caused by factors beyond employer control, such as lost contracts, unexpected market changes, decreased sales, issues with the supply of raw materials, etc.
• have recovery measures in place to return employees back to normal staffing levels and regular work hours by the end of the Work-Sharing agreement.
• have at least two eligible employees in the WS unit that must share the available work equally.

Ineligible employers

Your business is not eligible for Work-Sharing if it is experiencing reduced business activity due to:

• a labour dispute
  • includes work slowdowns, strikes, lockouts and work stoppages.
• a cyclical or seasonal shortage of work
• the decrease in available work due to an increase in the number of employees, or
• business decisions (i.e., to increase efficiencies or profits by reducing staffing levels)

Employers are not eligible if they are:

• an employer who operates solely for the purpose of carrying out the administration of a government program/activity, such as:
  • municipalities, or
  • Government Agencies
• self-employed

Eligible employees

To be eligible for Work-Sharing Employment Benefits, your employees must:

• be year-round, permanent, full-time or part-time employees needed to carry out the day-to-day functions of the business (your “core staff”)
• be eligible to receive Employment Insurance benefits*, and
• agree to reduce their normal working hours by the same percentage and to share the available work equitably

Some employers may have been unable to avoid layoffs prior to applying to participate in Work-Sharing. Core staff recently laid off may be included in the Work-Sharing unit.

*Please Note: Employees participating in Work-Sharing must qualify to receive Employment Insurance benefits. An employee’s eligibility will be determined after the employee has filed for Employment Insurance benefits. The employee does not have to inform their employer of the status of their eligibility for Employment Insurance benefits. Employees may refuse to be part of a Work-Sharing agreement or may not be eligible for Employment Insurance benefits. In either case, they are required to reduce their hours of work on an equitable basis with employees who are members of the Work-Sharing agreement.

Ineligible employees

Employees that are not eligible for Work-Sharing include:

• seasonal employees (for example: lifeguards, ski resort employees, etc.)
• students hired for a co-op term
• employees hired on a casual / on-call basis
• contracted temporary help agency workers
• self-employed
• employees needed to generate work should not to be included in the WS unit: for example, senior management, technical employees engaged in product development, marketing and sales agents, and
• those responsible for the direction of the company and who hold more than 40% of the voting shares in the business and/or who are investors