Family leaves under Employment Standards

The Ministry of Labour instituted family job-protected leaves, which have been included under the Employment Standards Act, 2000.

The Ministry of Labour sets out the eligibility criteria:

• Family Caregiver Leave: Family Caregiver leave is unpaid, job-protected leave of up to eight weeks per the calendar year per specified family member.
• Critically Ill Child Care Leave: Critically ill child care leave is an unpaid job-protected leave of absence of up to 37 weeks within a 52 week period.
• Crime-Related Child Death or Disappearance Leave: Crime-related child death or disappearance leave is an unpaid Job-protected leave of absence. It provides up to 104 weeks with respect to the crime-related death of a child and up to 52 weeks with respect to the crime-related disappearance of a child.
• Family Medical Leave:  Family Medical leave is unpaid, job protected leave of up to twenty-eight weeks per calendar year per specified family member.
• Domestic or Sexual Violence Leave: Domestic or sexual violence leave is a job-protected leave of absence. It provides up to 10 days and 15 weeks in a calendar year of time off to be taken for specific purposes when an employee or an employee’s child has experienced or been threatened with domestic or sexual violence. The first five days of leave taken in a calendar year are paid, and the rest are unpaid.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Are all these leaves covered under the Employment Insurance program?

Family caregiver leave is not covered by EI or any other initiative, but the Critically Ill Child Care leave and Crime-Related Child Death or Disappearance leaves and Family Medical leave are. You are not required to pay wages during the leave.

I do not have a large business, do I have to provide these leaves to my employees?

All of the above leaves apply to your business regardless of the number of employees.

Am I required to hold my employee’s job?

The employee is entitled to the same rights as those on maternity leave. For example, an employee that opts to take the leave has the right to have their job reinstated after the leave and to continue participating in benefit plans.