The City of Kitchener is the latest to announce layoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an email statement to 570 NEWS on Monday, a spokesperson confirms, "Today, we have made the difficult decision to place 842 of our temporary, casual and part-time employees on temporary Declared Emergency Leave."
The temporary move comes as city facilities and municipal programs have come to a halt.
However, The City of Kitchener said the affected workers are still on payroll - or at least will be again in the future.
"These valued members of our team remain employed by the City of Kitchener and will return to work once normal operations have resumed. In addition to putting these existing staff on temporary leave, another 82 temporary hires will be unable to start their upcoming seasonal jobs as we had originally planned."
The City said the affected temporary hires will be given the support they need to apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
