Overview of the types of leave
Here are the various types of leave your employees are eligible for in Canada:
Personal leave
Personal leave means days off from work to attend to personal or family needs. According to the Government of Canada, employees are entitled to up to five days off in a year for:
- Treating illnesses or injuries
- Caring for the educational obligations of minors in their family
- Managing personal or family emergencies
- Caring for sick family members
- Attending citizenship ceremonies
While employees can take personal leave days over several periods, you may ask each period to be at least one day. You may also request supporting documents that explain why your employee took a personal leave within 15 days after they return to work.
If an employee has three months of continuous employment with you, you are legally obliged to pay for the first three days of their personal leave. If the employee receives pay on other bases other than hourly rates, you legally need to pay their average daily earnings calculated over 20 days before they took a personal leave of absence. These calculations don’t include overtime hours.
Bereavement leave
Your employee is eligible for bereavement leave in Canada when an immediate family member dies. While they can take this leave over several days, the total period off that they are entitled to by the Canada Labour Code is five days.
Employees can take a bereavement leave of absence from the day their family member dies and until six weeks after the funeral, burial, or memorial service date. They must send a written notice to you when they want to start their bereavement leave and how long they expect it to last. You may extend this leave if an employee asks for more days off, and detail the extension in a written notice.
You legally must pay any employee who has at least three months of consecutive employment for the first three days. Employees who earn salaries other than hourly rates are entitled to the average of their daily earnings calculated 20 days before taking bereavement leave.
Leave for family violence victims
In Canada, employees are eligible for a 10-day leave in a year if they are family violence victims or parents of a child who is a family violence victim. If they have three continuous months of employment with you, they must earn their regular salary for the first five days.
While an employee can take this leave over multiple periods, you may request each period be one day long or more. Employees need to write and explain how long they expect to be away from work. They can also change the duration of the leave but must write another letter.
Employees who commit the act of violence or break the law relating to it are not entitled to leave for family violence victims.
Medical leave
Employees are eligible for a medical leave of up to 16 weeks if they have to quarantine. Alternatively, they can take 17 weeks to:
- Care for an illness or injury
- Donate an organ or tissue
- Attend medical appointments
When an employee’s medical leave takes at least three consecutive days, you may ask for a certificate from a healthcare practitioner. The document must explain that an employee cannot work due to medical reasons, and they must provide it up to 15 days after resuming work.
An employee can break another type of leave, like personal, critical illness, and compassionate care leave, to go on medical time off. They may also resume another leave of absence after catering to their medical needs. When your employee returns to work, you may assign other tasks if they cannot perform their previous duties and responsibilities.
You can provide a long-term disability (LTD) plan to protect their employees from losing their income source when a medical event occurs. If an employee has a work-related medical issue, you must start a plan to replace the pay for this leave.
Compassionate care leave
Compassionate care leave means a period off work to take care of a family member who has a life-threatening medical condition. In Canada, employees can take no more than 28 weeks in 52 weeks as compassionate care leave. The time off can start on:
- The week a medical practitioner examines the ill family member
- The week a family member becomes ill
- The week a medical practitioner signs the medical certificate signifying an illness
On the other hand, compassionate care leave ends when:
- The family member no longer needs care or their death occurs
- The employee completes the 28-week leave
- The agreed 52-week period is over
While multiple employees may share compassionate care leave to care for the same person, the total time they take must not be more than 28 weeks in 52 weeks. An employee can interrupt this leave for other time-off, but they must write a notice to you. In turn, you are legally obliged to reinstate the employee or offer them a similar position on their return to work. If you decided to reduce or increase wages while an employee was on a leave of absence, they would receive the increased or reduced wages.
Maternity and parental leave
Pregnant employees can take up to 17 weeks of maternity leave. This time off can start any period between 13 weeks before the expected birth date and end up to 17 weeks after.
Your employees must write a notice to you four weeks in advance and provide a certificate from a medical practitioner that confirms they are pregnant. This written notice must include how long they expect to be allowed away from work. If an employee does not birth a child within their maternity leave, they can extend their leave of absence until the birth date.
An adoptive or natural parent can take up to 63 weeks as extended parental leave. Parents who are both employees in federally regulated industries may also share their leave of absence to have eight more weeks. An employee can take a parental leave for up to 78 weeks after the birth date or the day the child comes into their care. However, parents who share their parental leave cannot exceed 86 weeks in total leave of absence, including maternity and parental leave.
You may provide more weeks for parental leave, depending on the agreement with the employees. However, employees must write a four-week notice before starting this leave.
Employees who have given birth to a child can combine both maternity and parental leave. The employee’s maternity leave starts first, followed by the parental leave. When combining maternity and parental leaves, an employee cannot legally extend their time away from work for more than 78 weeks.
Pregnant or nursing employees may ask you to reassign or modify their job. They can also ask that you reassign another job if the current one affects their health or the health of the unborn/recently born child.
When making the request, an employee must provide a certificate from a medical practitioner indicating:
- Activities or conditions to avoid
- How long the risk is expected to last
An employee can take a paid leave of absence while you assess their request for reassignment or job modification. Divide the wages for work performed by the total hours required to carry out the job when calculating pay for employees who don’t receive hourly wages. Use the collectively agreed rate when calculating the wages for employees who receive hourly pay.
A pregnant or nursing employee’s leave ends once you decide on whether to accept or reject their request for a change in job function.
Leave due to critical illness
Employees who have critically ill family members can take a leave of up to:
- 17 weeks out of 52 weeks to care for an adult
- 37 weeks out of 52 weeks to care for children under age 18
The leave can either start when a medical practitioner confirms the family member is ill or the day the practitioner issues a medical certificate signifying the illness. The leave of absence ends on the day the family member dies or gets better.
Employees who have more than two critically ill children can have separate leaves to care for each child. They must write a notice, and you are legally obliged to reinstate them when they return to work. An employee who takes a leave of absence due to critical illness can combine it with another leave of absence or change the leave duration. They legally can also interrupt a leave of absence due to critical illness or other types of leaves.
Leave for jury duty or court
If an employee is participating in a judicial proceeding or jury selection process as a defendant, witness, or juror, they can ask for time off work. However, the employee must write a notice and provide you with supporting documents. Leave can last as long as the trial.
Leave due to the death or disappearance of a child
An employee can have a 52-week leave if their child is under age 18 and missing. The leave starts from the day of the disappearance. Alternatively, employees can have 104 weeks off work if their child dies due to a crime. In this case, the leave begins on the day of death.
Before an employee can take this leave, they must be one of the following:
- A natural, legal parent
- An adoptive parent
- A person with guardianship or legal custody of the child
- A person who an agency places the child with for adoption
The employee must not be charged with a crime. If anyone finds the missing child within the 52-week leave, the leave of absence ends in 14 days.
If an employee’s child dies after they were missing for 52 weeks, your employee is eligible for a separate 104-week leave. They must write a notice and provide documents supporting their absence from work.
Leave of absence for reserve force members
Employees with three months of continuous employment with you are eligible for a leave of absence in which they can engage in:
- Any operation abroad or in Canada that the Minister of National Defence designates
- Military skills training with the Canadian Armed Forces
- Any duty under the National Defence Act that they are to perform on service
- Training under the National Defence Act
- Service in aid of civil powers under the National Defence Act
- Treatment, rehabilitation or recovery from a physical or mental problem due to service or a listed activity
Employees who are reservists are eligible for 24 months of leave in 60 months, except during national emergencies defined by the Emergencies Act.
Leave for Aboriginal practices
Aboriginal employees are eligible for five days of unpaid leave in Canada within a calendar year if they have three consecutive months of employment with you. They can take this leave to participate in traditional Aboriginal practices or ceremonies. While employees can take this leave over multiple periods, you may request each period be one day long or more.
You may request written documentation showing an employee is Aboriginal up to 15 days after they return to work.
