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The Right to Compassionate Care Leave

It's hard when employees become seriously ill and need leave to deal with health issues. But it may be even harder for employees when the seriously ill person is a spouse, child, parent or other close family member. Until fairly recently, employees didn't have the legal right to take leave in order to care or provide support for a seriously ill family member. They had to either quit their jobs or hire outsiders to care for their loved ones.

Because compassionate care leave is a fairly recent phenomenon, many employers are not familiar with its requirements or do not know how to handle requests for such leave. The chart below spells out employees' right to compassionate care leave under each province's (and territory's) employment standards laws.

Right to Compassionate Care Leave
	Statute	Definition of family member*	Length of service required	Medical Certificate	Notice Required	Length of leave
Fed	Canada Labour Code, Part III, Div. VII, Sec. 206.3	Sibling or step-sibling, grandparent, grandchild, in-law, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, foster parent or child, ward, guardian or tutor, a person whom the employee considers to be like a close relative or vice versa	None	Employer may request, in writing, a medical certificate within 15 days of employee’s return	No	Up to 8 weeks per 26-week period
BC	Employment Standards Act, Sec. 52.1	Sibling or step-sibling, grandparent, grandchild, in-laws, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, foster parent or child, ward guardian or tutor, a person whom the employee considers to be like a close relative or vice versa	None	Employee must give employer a copy of the medical certificate as soon as practicable	No	Up to 8 weeks per 26-week period
MB	Employment Standards Code, Sec. 59.2	Any person who is a member of the class of people prescribed in the regulations for the purposes of this definition	At least 30 days	Employee must give employer a copy of the “physician’s certificate” as soon as possible	At least one pay period	Up to 8 weeks per 26-week period
NB	Employment Standards Act, Sec. 44.024	A person with whom the employee has a close family relationship	None	Employer may request, in writing, a medical certificate within 15 days of employee’s return to work	As soon as possible	Up to 8 weeks per 26-week period
NL	Labour Standards Act, Part VII.3	Anyone who is a member of a class of people prescribed for the purpose of this definition in the regulations	At least 30 days	After getting notice, employer may request, in writing, a copy of the medical certificate from the employee	At least 2 weeks before leave is to begin	Up to 8 weeks per 26-week period
NS	Labour Standards Code, Sect. 60E	Anyone who is a member of a class of people prescribed in the regulations for the purpose of this definition	At least three months	Employer may request, in writing, a copy of the medical certificate from the employee	As soon as possible	Up to 8 weeks per 26-week period
NU	Labour Standards Act, Part V.1	Anyone considered a family member under Canada Labour Code or Employment Insurance Act	None	Employer may request, in writing, a medical certificate within 15 days of employee’s return to work	No	Up to 8 weeks per 26-week period
ON***	Employment Standards Act, Sec. 49.1	Sibling or step-sibling, grandparent, grandchild, in-laws, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, foster parent or child, ward, guardian or tutor, a person whom the employee considers to be like a close relative or vice versa	None	If requested by employer, employee must give the employer a copy of the medical certificate	Employee must notify employer in writing	Up to 8 weeks per 26-week period
PEI	Employment Standards Act, Sec. 22.3	Sibling, anyone who is a member of a class of people prescribed by the regulations for the purpose of this section	None	Employer may request, in writing, a medical certificate within 15 days of employee’s return to work	No	Up to 8 weeks per 26-week period
QC****	Act Respecting Labour Standards, Div. V.1	Sibling, grandparent	Three months of uninterrupted service	Medical certificate needed for extension of leave to care for minor child	As soon as possible	Up to 12 weeks/12-month period; up to 104 weeks if a minor child seriously ill
SK	Labour Standards Act, Sec. 44.2(1)	Sibling, grandparent	At least 13 consecutive weeks (if the employee doesn’t qualify for compassionate care benefits)	If requested by employer in writing, employee must give the employer a copy of the medical certificate	No	Up to 8 weeks/26 week period. Up to 12 wks if no federal. Comp. care benefit. No more than 16 weeks total per year
YK	Employment Standards Act, Sec 60.1	A child to whom the employee stands in the place of a parent, step parent, in-laws, any relative permanently residing in the employee’s house or with whom the employee resides	None	Employer may request, in writing, a medical certificate within 15 days of employee’s return to work	No	Up to 8 weeks per 26-week period
* All provinces and territories define family member to include the employee’s spouse or common-law partner, child and step-child, parent and step-parent. The chart includes any additional people included in that province’s definition of “Family member”.			Note: Alberta and the Northwest Territories don’t give employees the right to compassionate care leave. * In Ontario, such leave is called “family medical leave.” **** In Quebec, it’s called “family or parental leave.”

Compassionate care leave was a long time coming. It recognizes the reality of employees' lives and the human need to be with those we love at the end of their lives. Employers should be sensitive to the pressure and stress that employees with seriously ill family members are under and grant qualified compassionate care leave requests. Such leave benefits not only the employee and his/her family, but also the employer. After all, an employee is unlikely to be productive when their thoughts are with their dying family members.

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