Publication
Ontario’s Working for Workers Five Act receives royal assent
On October 28, Bill 190, Working for Workers Five Act, 2024 received royal assent.
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Canada | Publication | July 16, 2024
An employer’s ability to ask for a sick note when an employee is absent from work due to illness is becoming increasingly curtailed across Canada. A sick note is written confirmation from a regulated health professional that an employee’s short-term absence from work is for medical reasons.
At the moment, seven jurisdictions across Canada have some kind of statutory restriction on sick notes in place (the federal jurisdiction, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and to some extent Quebec). Depending on the jurisdiction, these restrictions may:
Ontario may soon prohibit any sick notes in connection with statutory sick leave requests. Currently, Ontario employers may require sick notes from employees who take unpaid statutory sick leave under the Employment Standards Act, 2000, if doing so is “reasonable in the circumstances.” This will change with the passage of Bill 190, Working for Workers Five Act (currently at second reading in the Ontario legislature). Employers will no longer be permitted to ask for sick notes where an employee uses statutory sick leave. Employees are entitled to three days of sick leave per year. Instead, employers will only be permitted to ask employees for other evidence that is “reasonable in the circumstances.”
Similarly, in Quebec, Bill 68, An Act mainly to reduce the administrative burden of physicians, was introduced on May 31, 2024, following the lead of other jurisdictions in this regard. Currently, employers may require a sick note related to a leave under the Act respecting labour standards if “it is warranted” – for example, due to the duration of the absence or its repetitive nature. If adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec in its current wording, Bill 68 would prohibit employers from requiring a sick note attesting to the reasons of the medical absence for the first three leaves of absence of three consecutive days or fewer annually. It would also prohibit employers from requiring a sick note to justify a leave of absence relating to family or caregiver obligations as defined in the law.
So if sick notes are prohibited, what can employers do to ensure illness-related absences are valid?
From a practical perspective, employers may:
Publication
On October 28, Bill 190, Working for Workers Five Act, 2024 received royal assent.
Publication
The Federal Court of Appeal’s 2023 decision in Canada (Attorney General) v Benjamin Moore & Co [Benjamin Moore FCA] overturned the Federal Court’s decision in Benjamin Moore & Co. v. Canada (Attorney General) [Benjamin Moore FC] that had previously established a new test for patentable subject matter in computer-implemented inventions.
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