Types of leaves you can receive as an employee working in federally regulated industries and workplaces

You are entitled to leave with pay at your regular rate of wages while your employer is examining your request for:

• reassignment, or
• job modification

This leave will end once the employer either:

• modifies your job function
• reassigns you to another job, or
• informs you that it is not reasonably practicable to modify your functions or reassign you

For the purposes of calculating and determining your regular hourly rate of wages if you are paid on any basis of time other than hourly, your employer shall divide the wages paid for work performed by the number of hours required to perform the work.

Your regular hourly rate of wages may be the rate agreed on under a collective agreement.

The wages paid for work performed do not include:

• vacation pay
• general holiday pay
• other holiday pay
• bereavement leave pay, and
• wages paid for any hours of overtime

The number of hours required to perform the work does not include hours for which an overtime rate of wages has been paid.

Where a reassignment or a job modification is not reasonably practicable, you may take an unpaid leave of absence for the duration of the risks as indicated in the medical certificate.

As an employee who is pregnant or nursing, you are entitled to an unpaid maternity-related leave of absence during the period from the beginning of the pregnancy to the end of the 24th week following the birth. To take this leave, you must provide your employer with a certificate from a health care practitioner. This certificate must indicate that you are unable to work by reason of the pregnancy or nursing, and the duration of the inability.

Part II of the Code (Occupational Health and Safety) allows you, a pregnant or nursing employee, to stop performing your job if you feel there is a risk to your health or that of your fetus or child until you can obtain a medical certificate. For further details, please consult Pregnant and Nursing Employees (Publication 5- Health and Safety).

You must also give your employer written notice, as soon as possible, advising of the reason(s) for the leave and the intended length of the leave. If the leave taken is more than 4 weeks and you want to change the length of the leave, you must provide the employer with 4 weeks’ notice, unless there is a valid reason why this is not possible.

If requested by your employer in writing, you must provide a certificate from a health care practitioner within 15 days of your return to work. This certificate must state that your family member has a serious medical condition and as a result, there was significant risk of death within 26 weeks.

It is possible for you to interrupt your compassionate care leave in order to take:

• medical leave, or
• work-related illness and injury leave

Compassionate care leave is to resume immediately after the other leave ends. However, it cannot extend beyond 52 weeks after the day on which the leave started.

You must give your employer a written notice of the interruption before or as soon as you are able after it begins. You must provide your employer with a written notice of the day on which you intend to resume the compassionate care leave before or as soon as you are able after that day.

It is possible for you to renew compassionate care leave. However, the initial 52 weeks must expire before you can take another 28 weeks of leave. If you do not take all of the 28 weeks of leave within the 52-week period, you will lose the remaining weeks.

You can take separate, non-consecutive shorter periods of leaves (not to exceed the 28-week maximum) within the 52-week period if your family member has several episodes of a serious medical condition. To do this, you must provide your employer with a medical certificate issued from a health care practitioner for each period of leave. You can take a leave of absence for compassionate care in 1 or more periods of a minimum of 1 week in duration.

Upon your return to work, your employer must reinstate you in your former position or give you a comparable position in the same location and with the same wages and benefits.

If, during a leave period, your employer reduces the wages and benefits of a group of employees as part of a reorganization plan and if you are reinstated in that group you will receive the same wages and benefits that you would have received if you were working during the reorganization. If your employer increases the wages and benefits for your group during leave, you would be entitled to the increases upon your return to work.

To take this leave, you must provide your employer with a written notice, as soon as possible. This notice must advise your employer of the reason(s) for the leave and the intended length of the leave. If you take more than 4 weeks of leave and you want to change the length of the leave, you must provide your employer with 4 weeks’ notice, unless there is a valid reason not to do so.

You must also provide your employer with a certificate from a health care practitioner. The certificate must state that the child or adult is critically ill or injured and requires the care or support of 1 or more of their family members.

Two or more family members can take leave at the same time, or one after the other. However, the combined length of the leave cannot exceed 37 weeks within a 52-week period for a child and 17 weeks within a 52-week period for an adult.

You can take separate, non-consecutive shorter periods of leave (not to exceed the 37-week maximum for a child and the 17-week maximum for an adult) within the 52-week period if the child has several episodes of critical illness. To do this, you must provide your employer with a certificate issued from a health care practitioner for each period of leave. You can take a leave of absence for critical illness in 1 or more periods of a minimum of 1-week duration.

You may not take leave due to critical illness for a child or an adult while 1 or more employees are taking compassionate care leave for the same person and vice versa. However, you may take this leave consecutively.

You can also change the length of leave by notifying your employer in writing as soon as possible.

It is possible for you to interrupt your leave related to critical illness in order to take:

• medical leave, or
• work-related illness and injury leave

Leave related to critical illness is to resume immediately after the other leave ends, but cannot extend beyond 52 weeks after the leave commenced.

If you intend to interrupt the leave related to critical illness, you must give your employer a written notice of the interruption before or as soon as possible after it begins. You must also give your employer a written notice of the day on which leave related to critical illness will resume, before or as soon as possible after that day.

Upon your return to work, your employer must reinstate you in your former position or give you a comparable position in the same location and with the same wages and benefits.

However, if you take a leave of more than 4 weeks but request to end the leave earlier without giving at least 4 weeks’ written notice, your employer may postpone your return to work. Your employer may postpone your return to work up to 4 weeks after the day on which you inform them of the new date. In that case, your employer must inform you of this decision and the period of postponement is considered to be part of the leave.

If, during a leave period, your employer reduces the wages and benefits of a group of employees as part of a reorganization plan and if you are reinstated in that group you will receive the same wages and benefits that you would have received if you were at work during the reorganization. If your employer increases the wages and benefits for your group during their leave, you are entitled to the increases upon your return to work.

If you have 3 consecutive months of continuous employment with the same employer, the first 3 days of leave are paid. If your salary varies from one day to another or you receive pay on a basis other than an hourly rate, you must receive the average of your daily earnings, exclusive of overtime hours, for the 20 days you have worked immediately before the first day of leave.

If you have 3 consecutive months of continuous employment with the same employer, you will receive pay for the first 5 days of leave.

If your salary varies from one day to another or you receive pay on a basis other than an hourly rate, you must receive the average of your daily earnings, exclusive of overtime hours, for the 20 days you have worked immediately before the first day of leave.

A “child” means a person who is age 18 and under. A “parent” means, with respect to a child, a person who, in law:

• is a parent of the child
• has custody of the child or, in Quebec, parental authority over the child
• is the guardian of the child or, in Quebec, the tutor or curator to the person of the child
• is a person who has decision-making responsibility, as defined in the Divorce Act, in respect of the child, or
• is the person with whom the child is placed for the purposes of adoption under the laws governing adoption in the province in which the person resides

If you have 3 consecutive months of continuous employment with your employer, you will receive pay for the first 3 days of bereavement leave.

If your salary varies from one day to another or you receive pay on a basis other than an hourly rate, you must receive the average of your daily earnings, exclusive of overtime hours, for the 20 days you have worked immediately before the first day of bereavement leave.

If a medical leave of absence (paid or unpaid) is 5 days or longer, your employer may require that you provide a certificate issued by a health care practitioner.

You must provide one in writing if requested by your employer within 15 days of your return to work. The certificate must certify that you were unable to work for the time you were absent from work.

If you intend to take a medical leave of absence, you must give written notice to your employer. It must detail the day on which the leave is to begin and the expected duration.

You must provide written notice at least 4 weeks before that day, unless there is a valid reason why it cannot be given, in which case you must provide it as soon as possible.

Your employer may choose to establish a year for the purpose of medical leave with pay as follows:

• as a calendar year, or
• an alternate year period used by the employer that exists for the purposes of calculating annual vacation entitlement

Your employer will carry over any unused days of medical leave with pay in a year to you at the beginning of the new year up to a maximum of 10 days.

The unused leave from the previous year will count towards the maximum of 10 days that you can earn during the current year.

If your work hours differ from day to day or your pay is calculated on a basis other than time, your employer must calculate your pay for the day of leave by taking the average of your daily earnings, not including overtime hours, for the 20 days you have worked immediately preceding the first day of your period of paid leave.

Your employer will count any medical leave with pay that you take as time worked for the purposes of hours of work averaging.

If you are covered by a collective agreement, it can specify a different calculation method. The calculation method contained in the collective agreement must:

• relate specifically to medical leave with pay, or
• provide for a calculation method that encompasses all paid leaves

For some employees, their collective agreement or employment contract provides for 10 or more days of paid medical leave. In this case, you are not entitled to additional medical leave with pay under the Canada Labour Code (Code), if:

• you can take the leave in the collective agreement or contract of employment for any of the following reasons:
  • illness or injury
  • organ or tissue donation
  • attending medical appointments, or
  • quarantine
• you can divide the leave in one or more periods. Your employer may require that each period of leave be not less than 1 day’s duration
• each day of medical leave with pay that you do not take in an established year can be carried forward up to a maximum of 10 days
• the following are at least as beneficial to you as those under the Code:
  • conditions for taking the leave
  • the amount of pay for the leave
  • accrual and carry-forward of the leave
  • the accrual and maintenance of insurance
  • pension and other benefits during the leave, and
  • the right to be reinstated in the same or a comparable position after the end of the leave

The Canada Labour Standards Regulations require employers to keep the following records related to each period of medical leave with pay that you take:

• the dates of commencement and termination of the leave
• the year of employment in respect of which the leave was earned
• the number of days of leave carried over from the previous year
• a copy of any written request for a medical certificate made by your employer, and
• a copy of any medical certificate submitted by you

The Canada Labour Standards Regulations (Regulations) clarify that employees in the longshoring sector who are engaged in multi-employer employment (for example, casual daily dispatch workers on the West Coast, casual workers on the East Coast) are considered to be engaged in continuous work for the purposes of eligibility for medical leave with pay.

Although student interns are entitled to medical leave (unpaid), they are not entitled to medical leave with pay.

For more information, please consult the employer’s obligations towards student interns web page.

If you are an employee who suffers from a work-related illness or injury, you are entitled to leave.

Employers must subscribe to a plan that will replace the wages for this kind of leave. The rate will be a rate equivalent to the one provided by the provincial or territorial workers’ compensation in your province of permanent residence.

Where reasonably practicable, your employer shall return you to work after a work-related illness or injury. Your employer may reassign you to a different position, with different terms and conditions of employment, if you are unable to perform your work due to a work-related illness or injury.

It is possible for you to interrupt other leaves in order to take:

• medical leave (paid or unpaid), or
• work-related illness and injury leave

The other leaves are:

• parental leave
• compassionate care leave
• leave related to critical illness
• leave related to death or disappearance, and
• annual vacation

In such a case, the other leave resumes immediately after the medical leave ends.

For technical guidance on medical leave with pay, please consult IPG-118 and IPG-119.

An employer can offer you long-term disability (LTD) benefits to protect you against the possibility of income loss, due to a medical event that would make you unable to work for an extended period.

As of July 1, 2014, employers who offer LTD plans must insure them. This guarantees that you continue to receive benefits in the event your employer is unable to pay debts owed or files for bankruptcy. However, insurance is not required if you started receiving LTD benefits or have applied to receive benefits prior to this date.

An employer will need to contact their licensed insurance provider to insure their LTD plan under the laws of a province. An employer may be required to provide proof to the Labour Program demonstrating that they insured their LTD plan. Employers who are guilty and convicted of not insuring their LTD plan may be subject to a fine of up to $250,000 for the first and any following offence.

To take this leave, you must provide a 4 weeks’ written notice to your employer indicating:

• the length of the leave, unless you gave a valid reason not to do so, and
• your intention to extend or shorten the leave, unless you have a valid reason not to do so

Your employer can request within 3 weeks after the start date of the leave, proof that you qualify for this leave. In this case, you must provide documentation approved by the Chief of the Defence Staff or their Commander, unless there is a valid reason not to do so.

If you did not specify the length of the leave before it started and you give the employer less than 4 weeks’ notice of the end date, your employer may delay your return to work by up to 4 weeks after receiving notice. Any waiting period before returning to work is considered as part of the leave.

You may extend or shorten your leave period once it has started. As a reservist, you may extend your leave if you need to receive treatments or undergo a rehabilitation program to recover from a physical or mental problem resulting from your service while on leave.

If you shorten your leave:

• you must give at least 4 weeks’ notice before the new date on which it would end, unless you have a valid reason not to do so

If you extend your leave:

• you must give at least 4 weeks’ notice before the date on which the leave was previously scheduled to end, unless you have a valid reason no to do so

Upon your return to work, your employer must reinstate you in your former position or give you a comparable position in the same location and with the same wages and benefits. If you are no longer able to perform the function of the original position, or those of a comparable position, your employer may assign you to a different position with different terms and conditions of employment.

If, during a leave period, your employer reduces the wages and benefits of a group of employees as part of a reorganization plan and if you are reinstated in that group you will receive no more than the wages and benefits that you would have received if you had been at work during the reorganization. If your employer increases the wages and benefits for your group during the leave, you would be entitled to the increases upon your return to work. Your employer must inform you of any change to wages and benefits resulting from a reorganization by sending you a notice to your last known address.

If you encounter difficulties upon returning to your civilian position, it is suggested that you discuss the situation with your employer and include the information in this web page. If problems persist, contact a regional Labour Program Officer, who will be able to answer any questions and give advice to both parties on the requirements of this legislation.

If a collective agreement is in place but is silent on the leave of absence for members of the reserve force, your employer must still grant you the leave, because the collective agreement must include provisions that are at least equal to those of the Code.

Your employer is not required to contribute to the following while you are on this leave:

• pension plans
• health insurance
• disability insurance, or
• other employee benefits