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Overview

Most employees have the right to take up to three days of unpaid job-protected leave each calendar year because of an illness, injury, medical emergency or urgent matter relating to certain relatives. This is known as family responsibility leave. Special rules apply to some occupations.

Employees are entitled to up to three family responsibility leave days per year after they have worked for an employer for at least two consecutive weeks. An employee who missed part of a day to take the leave would be entitled to any wages they earned while working.

Reasons family responsibility leave may be taken

An employee who is entitled to family responsibility leave can take up to three unpaid days of leave each calendar year due to:

  • illness, injury, medical emergency or urgent matter relating to the following family members:
    • spouse (includes both married and unmarried couples, of the same or opposite genders)
    • parent, step-parent, foster parent, child, step-child, foster child, grandparent, step-grandparent, grandchild or step-grandchild of the employee or the employee's spouse
    • spouse of the employee's child
    • brother or sister of the employee
    • relative of the employee who is dependent on the employee for care or assistance

Illness, injury or medical emergency

An employee can take family responsibility leave for illnesses, injuries and medical emergencies for a specified family member listed above.

Generally, employees are entitled to take the leave if a relative has a pre-planned (elective) surgery if it is for an illness or injury, even though it is scheduled ahead of time and not a medical “emergency.”

Employees cannot take the leave for a relative who is having cosmetic surgery that isn’t medically necessary or is unrelated to an illness or injury.

Urgent matter

An employee can also take family responsibility leave because of an “urgent matter” concerning any of the family members listed above. An urgent matter is an event that is unplanned or out of the employee’s control, and can cause serious negative consequences, including emotional harm, if not responded to.

Examples of an “urgent matter”

  • The employee’s babysitter calls in sick.
  • The house of the employee’s elderly parent is broken into, and the parent is very upset and needs the employee’s help to deal with the situation.
  • The employee has an appointment to meet with their child’s counsellor to discuss behavioural problems at school. The appointment could not be scheduled outside the employee’s working hours.

Examples of events that do not qualify as an urgent matter

  • An employee wants to leave work early to watch his daughter’s soccer game.
  • An employee wants the day off to attend her sister’s wedding as a bridesmaid.

Contracts that provide paid or unpaid similar leave

If an employment contract, including a collective agreement, provides a greater right or benefit than the family responsibility standard under the Employment Standards Act (ESA), then the terms of the contract apply instead of the standard.

If the contract does not provide a greater right or benefit, then the family responsibility leave standard in the ESA applies to the employee. However, if an employment contract provides for something similar to family responsibility leave (for example, paid “sick days” that can be used for either the employee or if the employee’s child is sick), then if the employee takes the leave under the employment contract, the employee is considered to have also taken family responsibility leave.

Example

A contract only provides for one paid personal day per year, which may include the employee’s child’s illness. This contract does not provide a greater right or benefit than the family responsibility leave provisions. This means that the employee is entitled to three days of job protected family responsibility leave per calendar year.

If the employee takes one paid personal day off under the employment contract because their child was ill, the employee has also taken one family responsibility leave day under the ESA. That means the employee would have two family responsibility leave days left in the calendar year under the ESA, and no more paid personal days under the employment contract. The paid personal day counts against both the employment contract entitlements and against the employee’s family responsibility leave entitlement. This is true whether the leave under the contract of employment is paid or unpaid.

Interaction with other leaves

Sick leave, family responsibility leave, infectious disease emergency leave, bereavement leave, family caregiver leave, family medical leave, domestic or sexual violence leave, critical illness leave, child death leave and crime-related child disappearance leave are different types of leaves. The purposes of the leaves, their length and eligibility criteria are different. See the other chapters of this Guide for more information on each leave.

An employee may be entitled to more than one leave for the same event. Each leave is separate and the right to each leave is independent of any right an employee may have to the other leave(s). This means that a single absence can only count against one statutory leave, even if the event that triggered it is a qualifying event under more than one leave.

Length of family responsibility leave

Employees are entitled to up to three full days of job protected unpaid family responsibility leave every calendar year, whether they are employed on a full or part-time basis.

There is no pro-rating of the three day entitlement. An employee who begins work partway through a calendar year is still entitled to three days of leave for the rest of that year.

Employees cannot carry over unused family responsibility leave days to the next calendar year. The three days of leave do not have to be taken consecutively. Employees can take the leave in part days, full days or in periods of more than one day. If an employee takes only part of a day as family responsibility leave, the employer can count it as a full day of leave.

Example: Part-day family responsibility leave

Kevin’s daughter is sick, and her doctor has scheduled some tests at the hospital. Kevin tells his employer that he has to be away from work in the morning to take his daughter for tests.

Kevin has the right to be on family responsibility leave for the half-day needed to take his daughter for the tests. His employer does not have to count the absence as a full day of leave, but can if they want. Kevin does not have the right to take the entire day off as leave – even if his employer counted it as such – as he only needs half the day for the leave.

The employer is only allowed to count the half-day absence as a full day of leave when determining if Kevin’s three day entitlement has been used up. The employer, for example, still must pay Kevin for the half day that he worked, and has to include the hours worked to determine whether he worked overtime, or reached his daily or weekly limit on hours of work.

Notice requirements

Generally, an employee must inform the employer before starting the leave that he or she will be taking a family responsibility leave of absence.

If an employee has to begin the leave before notifying the employer, the employee must inform the employer as soon as possible after starting it. Notice does not have to be given in writing. Oral notice is sufficient.

While an employee is required to tell the employer in advance before starting a leave (or, if this is not feasible, as soon as possible after starting the leave), the employee will not lose the right to take the leave if they fail to do so.

Proof of entitlement

An employer may require an employee to provide evidence “reasonable in the circumstances” that they are eligible for family responsibility leave.

What will be reasonable in the circumstances will depend on all of the facts of the situation, such as the duration of the leave, whether there is a pattern of absences, whether any evidence is available and the cost of the evidence. For example, if an employee takes the leave because a person included in the group of family members covered by family responsibility leave was involved in a car accident, it would be reasonable for an employer to request a copy of a police report or invoice from a towing company or auto mechanic.

Medical notes

An employer cannot require an employee to provide a medical note from a health professional when the employee is taking the leave because of the illness, injury or medical emergency of a specified relative.

In addition to being prohibited from requiring the employee to provide a medical note with respect to a leave taken because of the illness, injury or medical emergency of a relative, the employer cannot require the employee to give details of the relative’s medical condition. The employer may only require the employee to disclose the name of the relative, and their relationship to the employee, and a statement that the absence was required because of the relative’s injury, illness or medical emergency.

Rights during leave

Employees who take family responsibility leave are entitled to the same rights as employees who take pregnancy or parental leave. For example, employers cannot threaten, fire or penalize in any way an employee who takes or plans on taking a family responsibility leave. See “Rights for employees taking pregnancy and parental leaves” in the “Pregnancy and parental leave” chapter of this guide.

Special rules for family responsibility leave

Professional employees

Certain professionals may not take family responsibility leave where it would constitute an act of professional misconduct or a dereliction of professional duty (for example, health practitioners). For a list of professions to which this special rule applies, please refer to the guide to special rules and exemptions.