Leave without pay (LWOP) for compassionate caregiving – Temporary changes to approval process

Date: August 23, 2021
To: Heads of Human Resources and managers

Purpose

The purpose of this notice is to inform managers and compensation advisors of changes to the approval process for compassionate caregiving leave without pay (LWOP).

Background

This change is a result of amendments to the treatment of LWOP for the public service pension plan. As of June 10, 2021, members of the public service pension plan who take compassionate caregiving leave without pay are now only required to pay their share of the pension contributions if they choose to count their LWOP as pensionable service.

New process for managers

To ensure that the pension contributions owing are correctly calculated by the Pension Centre upon an employee’s return to work from leave without pay for compassionate caregiving purposes, managers must:

  1. Complete the text box that requests “For all other leave types requested, give reason(s) here and/or quote article and sub-article of applicable [collective] agreement” with the relevant reference to compassionate caregiving leave under the employee’s collective agreement when an employee submits their Leave Application and Absence Report form (GC-178) to you for approval. 

    For example: If the employee is a member of the Program and Administrative Services (PA) group, write “compassionate caregiving leave per the PA collective agreement (42.01)”.

  2. Submit the completed form to the Pay Centre or the departmental compensation advisor per your regular process.

New process for compensation advisors

To ensure that the pension contributions owing are correctly calculated by the Pension Centre upon an employee’s return to work from leave without pay for compassionate caregiving purposes, compensation advisors must:

  1. Upon receipt of the Leave Application and Absence Report form (GC-178), submit the form to the Pension Centre at the following email: TPSGC.DGRGPMatimageriepension-RGPBMatpensionimaging.PWGSC@TPSGC-PWGSC.GC.CA .

Additional information

If you have any questions about this notice, contact the Pay Centre or your departmental compensation advisor.

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