Conversion to Indeterminate Status (3-year rollover provision)

• Merit and Recourse

  • Administrative measure: Merit is not reassessed and is not subject to recourse.
• Vaccination Requirement

  • The Policy on COVID-19 Vaccination for the Core Public Administration requires all employees to be fully vaccinated or have a supported accommodation measure due to a certified medical contraindication, religion or other prohibited ground of discrimination as defined in the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA).
  • The vaccination requirement took effect on October 6, 2021, and it is a condition of employment.
  • Refer to the Validation of Vaccination Requirement for Staffing Requests web page to know the validation process for your staffing action.
• Determining the Conversion date

  As per the Policy on People Management and the Public Service Employment Act, the conversion date is 3 years from the date of appointment/deployment to a department or agency; in this case, to ESDC.

  • For example: Appointment is June 10, 2020 – the conversion date is June 10, 2023.
  • If the conversion date is a statutory holiday or a weekend (unless the individual is actually required to work on that day), the conversion will be effective the following business day.

  Tip: You can request an employee's employment history, which includes periods of leave without pay (LWOP) of greater than 5 days, from a Branch/Region Designate. The designate can access this information in PeopleSoft at the following path: Workforce Administration > Job Information > Review Job Information > Workforce Job Summary.

  Review the conversion date with the employee to ensure all eligible term employment periods are counted and to factor in any periods that do not count in the cumulative period (i.e. sunset funding, periods of Leave without pay, etc.). Consult the Guidance Chart below to complete your review.

• Guidance Chart: Calculating term employment cumulative working periods

  To determine whether a period of term employment in ESDC counts as part of the cumulative working period, refer to the following chart:

  Type of Employment period	Considered a break in service?*	Counted in the cumulative working period?**
  Full-time employee changes to Part-time where the hours are still more than one-third of the normal scheduled daily or weekly hours of work established for persons doing similar work (i.e., more than 12.5 hours a week if normal hours are 37.5)	No	Yes
  Periods of Part-time worker employment (the hours are less than one-third of the normal scheduled daily or weekly hours of work established for persons doing similar work (i.e., 12.5 hours a week or less))	Yes	No
  Seasonal lay-off period of full-time or part-time seasonal employees	No	No – If the employee is required to work during the layoff period, the days worked count.
  Periods of casual employment	Yes	No
  Periods of unemployment of 60 consecutive calendar days or less	Yes	Yes
  Periods of unemployment of more than 60 consecutive calendar days	Yes	No
  Periods of employment under a Treasury Board student employment program	Yes	No
  LWOP for 60 consecutive calendar days or less	No	Yes
  LWOP for more than 60 consecutive calendar days (may be combined with different types of leave as long as the periods are consecutive) Types of LWOP: Sick Leave Maternity and Parental Leave Care of Family Relocation of a Spouse or Common-law Partner	No	Yes If you have concerns about including any of these LWOP periods, contact your Labour Relations Advisor to discuss by submitting a request in the HRSC Portal.
  LWOP for more than 60 consecutive days (may be combined to different types of leave as long as the periods of leave are consecutive) Type of LWOP: Educational Leave	No	No
  LWOP for more than 60 consecutive calendar days (may be combined with different types of leave as long as the periods of leave are consecutive) Types of LWOP: Personal Needs Other Reasons	No	Determined on a case by case basis with Labour Relations Note 1: The impact of the LWOP on the prohibited grounds of the Canadian Human Rights Act must be evaluated. Contact your Labour Relations Advisor to discuss by submitting a request in the HRSC Portal.
  Periods of term employment where the source of funding for salary dollars is from external sources and for a limited duration (sunset funding) and is identified as such in the term employment offer.	No	No
  Periods of term employment during the application of the suspension of the accrual time towards indeterminate conversion: ESDC (excluding Passport Program employees): July 29, 2011 to March 31, 2017 Passport Program: August 2, 2013 to March 31, 2017 For more information on the suspension period, consult the Suspension of the cumulative period section.	No	No

  *Break in service: For purposes of the Directive on Term Employment only, a break of more than 60 consecutive days between eligible periods of employment.

  • If the break is 60 days or less: The days during the break count in the calculation.
  • If the break is over 60 days: Restart the cumulative calculation.

  **Cumulative working period: The periods of employment in the same department/agency that count in determining whether or not a term employee meets the requirement for indeterminate status.

  Note 1: As per Appendix A.2.2.5 of the Directive on Term Employment, departments/agencies must take the following into consideration when determining if the period of LWOP longer than 60 consecutive calendar days counts as part of the cumulative working period:

  • The employee was on such leave on or after June 20, 2008 and
  • Not including the period of LWOP would result in discrimination on a prohibited ground set out in the Canadian Human Rights Act.
• Suspension of the cumulative period

  The Department suspended the accrual time towards indeterminate conversion as follows:

  • ESDC employees (excluding Passport Program employees): from July 29, 2011 to March 31, 2017.
  • Passport Program employees: from August 2, 2013 to March 31, 2017.

  Time spent as a term employee while the suspension was in effect does not count in the calculation of the cumulative working period towards indeterminate status.

  Effective April 1, 2017, following the Department's assessment of the potential impacts of program and service modernization changes on its workforce and budgets, the Department lifted the suspension. Term employees therefore resumed accumulating time towards the cumulative working period in accordance with the provisions of the Directive on Term Employment.

• Employee refusal to be converted

  An employee can refuse the conversion where it would not be advantageous for that term employee to become indeterminate (i.e. pension implications for a returning retiree, person with a priority entitlement, etc.). With the written agreement of both parties, no action is taken to proceed with the conversion. Keep a copy of the agreement for your records. Do not submit a conversion request in the HRSC Portal.

• Letter template for confirmation of conversion

  Once the conversion date is confirmed with the employee, provide the employee with a signed copy of the confirmation of conversion to indeterminate status.

  • Term to Indeterminate Conversion Letter template (DOCX, 162 KB)
  • The Term to Indeterminate Conversion (including Term Extension) Letter template (DOCX, 162 KB) can be used when the employee is to be converted within 2 months of the effective date of the extension. Only one request (conversion request) is required in this case.

• Conversion

  • COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement: Consult the Validation of Vaccination Requirement for Staffing Requests web page to know the confirmation process for your staffing action.
  • Signed confirmation of conversion to indeterminate status letter provided to the employee (see template above).
• If Applicable

  • Confirmation from a Labour Relations Advisor that a LWOP period counts or not in the cumulative period (if the employee has taken the following LWOP types for a period longer than 60 consecutive calendar days):
    • Personal Needs
    • Other Reasons

• Step 1: Obtain the following
  • Consult the Terms of Reference of your branch/regional Workforce Management Committee (WMC) to determine if WMC approval is required.
  • If the employee is a temporary resident or temporary foreign worker, ensure their work permit is still valid.
• Step 2: Complete the request form
  • To find information needed to complete your request, refer to the Reference Guide for Managers (DOCX, 514 KB) and the myEMS (PeopleSoft) Designates Tip Sheet.
  • For financial coding, refer to the Financial Coding Manual, contact your Financial Management Advisor or email na-fin_coding-codage@hrdc-drhc.net.
  • Add any other information/comment in the "Additional Comments" section.
  • Attach the required documents.
• Step 3: Submit your request
  • The staffing sub-delegated manager with financial signing authority, for the identified cost centre, under the Financial Administration Act (FAA) assumes full responsibility for the request.
  • HR will review your request and contact you if required.

Tip:

Don't forget to update the employee's Employment Status in the Salary Forecasting Tool (SFT). To update the SFT, contact your Branch or Regional Management Services (BMS or RMS) or Financial Management and Advisory Services (FMAS), depending on the organizational structure of your branch or region. For more information, see the Developing Salary Forecast section in the Departmental Forecasting Roadmap.