What you should be looking out for:
Does your company have more than 500 insured employees?
- Since the reduction to twenty hours for enrollment is only for workplace with 500 insured employees, you need to be aware of the number of employees in your company.
- When looking at this, remember that it’s not your workplace, or even your school’s “brand name”, but on the actual employer.
- If it’s over 500 and your work over twenty hours per week, you should have been enrolled in October 2016.
What is the current enrollment guideline at your workplace? Who is currently enrolled (e.g. everybody working more than x hours)?
- For employers with fewer than 500 insured employees, this line is often thirty hours per week – but not always.
- Some high schools and universities even enrol part timers with much less hours than this.
- In the case of part timers who are enrolled at employers with 500+insured employees at less than twenty hours, their enrollment will continue; but new employees under twenty hours (how is twenty hours defined?) CANNOT be enrolled.
Have you been told anything about the election of a social insurance representative?
- In workplaces with fewer than 500 insured employees, the twenty-hour enrollment line can still be implemented.
- In cases were the employer wants to enrol at the twenty-hour line, they must have the assent of the “Social Insurance Representative”.
- The good thing is that enrollment is based on the wishes of the employer, meaning that we can negotiate (and dispute) to win the employer’s assent.