Unions across the country are pushing for further measures to keep their members safe, whether they stock the frozen food section in a grocery store or care for critically-ill patients in an intensive care unit. Health-care workers Unifor had strong words for an Ontario government directive that allows employers to ask long-term care workers who’ve […]
More than a third (35 per cent) of Canadians said they expect to lose their job or the main source of self-employment income in the next four weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey by Statistics Canada. The survey, which polled more than 4,600 Canadians in all 10 provinces in late March and early April, found […]
Morneau Shepell Ltd. and fitness app Lift are partnering to add artificial intelligence-based fitness programs and live coaches to Morneau Shepell’s LifeWorks well-being platform. Through the platform, plan members will be able to access virtual fitness programs built for their personal goals using AI. They will also be able to receive live virtual coaching and can join live […]
Before the coronavirus pandemic, 20 per cent of BMO Financial Group’s 45,000 employees were working from home on a fairly regular basis. Since March, that’s jumped to 80 per cent. “We have, of course, people who are in branches who need to go in and serve customers face to face, but we have schooled up our work […]
People across Canada are stressed out about money. In fact, 41 per cent of Canadians say money is their No. 1 source of stress, according to Karrina Dusablon, vice-president of market development and strategic solutions at Canada Life, during a session at Benefits Canada‘s 2020 DC Plan Summit in Montreal in February. Overall well-being is […]
The federal government is expanding the Canada Emergency Response Benefit to include workers whose monthly income has been reduced to $1,000 or less, in response to concerns from gig economy workers who didn’t qualify for the original version of the benefit. The benefit will also now apply to seasonal workers who won’t have work because […]
While physical well-being is vital during the coronavirus pandemic, the situation is raising multiple mental-health issues, including rising stress levels exacerbated by job uncertainty and social isolation. Looking at mental-health policies and tools, innovative practices and work-from-home protocols, Benefits Canada hosted a panel of experts in a webinar on March 31 to answer plan sponsor […]
The mental-health repercussions of the coronavirus could see global sales of psychiatric drugs increase to more than US$40 billion by 2025, according to data and analytics company GlobalData. Global sales for drugs to treat mental-health disorders such as depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder are expected to reach US$27.4 billion in 2020, an increase of US$717 […]
Morneau Shepell Ltd.’s latest monthly mental-health index, which includes a measure of how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting Canadian workers’ mental health, has reached a new low of 63. This compares to a benchmark of 75 and is unprecedented in the three-year period that data has been collected, noted a press release. “An overall score of […]
The coronavirus pandemic is expected to impact employers’ short-term disability claims’ experience as workers fall ill and require time off work to recover from the virus, but plan sponsors may also have to prepare for an increase in long-term disability claims after the crisis eventually ends. The spike in claims could follow the same pattern as it did […]