Employees have the right to take unpaid, job-protected infectious disease emergency leave if they are not performing the duties of their position because of specified reasons related to a designated infectious disease. This leave is available to all employees who are covered by the Employment Standards Act.
Employers cannot threaten, fire or penalize an employee in any other way because the employee took or plans on taking an infectious disease emergency leave.
Who is eligible for IDEL?
Employees can take infectious disease emergency leave if they will not be performing the duties of their position because of any of the following reasons:
The information or direction may be issued:
For example, this would include the employer directing the employee to stay at home for a period of time if the employee has recently travelled internationally and the employer is concerned the employee may expose others in the workplace to a designated infectious disease.
This includes an employee taking leave to care for their child whose school or child care was closed because of a designated infectious disease (in this case, COVID-19) or because the employee did not send their child to school or child care out of fear the child would be exposed to COVID-19.
It also includes taking leave to care for a child who was sick with COVID-19 or who stayed home because of COVID-19 protocols at the school or child care (e.g. the child was showing signs of illness and the school or child care centre advised the child to isolate and get tested before returning).
It also includes where the employee’s child had a symptom that did not automatically require the child to stay away from school or child care, but the employee was concerned the symptom may relate to COVID-19 and chose to keep their child home as a precautionary measure.
Other examples include:
The employee can be providing the care or support in Ontario or in another province, territory or country.
For example, this would include an employee who is on a cruise ship that is not permitted to dock in any country because of the concern that passengers are infected by a designated infectious disease.
There may be some situations where an employee is affected by travel restrictions (for example where there are no international commercial airline flights available) but the employee has other options available to travel back to Ontario. This condition will be met if it would not be reasonable to expect the employee to use alternative options.
What is reasonable will depend on the circumstances. For example, an employee was vacationing in Mexico City when Canada banned all flights from Mexico for two weeks. The employee could rent a car or take a series of buses and trains to return to Ontario but that would not be a reasonable expectation in the circumstances.
This provision applies only where the employee is directly affected by the travel restrictions. In other words, it applies only where the employees travel back to Ontario is affected.
This provision applies only when the employee is caught by travel restrictions while outside of Ontario.
The employee is subject to an order that relates to COVID-19 under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020 (ROA).
This would apply, for example, to an employee who is subject to a ROA order that prohibits employees who work in a long-term care home from also working for another health service provider.
For instance, an employee who has two jobs – one at a long-term care home and one at a retirement home – who is not working at one of the homes as a result of this order, is entitled to take infectious disease emergency leave from the employer that they are temporarily not working for.
The ROA took effect on July 24, 2020. Certain orders that had previously been emergency orders under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMCPA) were continued as orders under the ROA on that date.
Note that if an employee was subject to an EMCPA order and consequently was not performing the duties of their position prior to July 24, 2020, they were entitled to take declared emergency leave (which was available between March 17, 2020 and July 24, 2020) or infectious disease emergency leave.
Is it a paid leave?
No, IDEL in an unpaid, job protected leave.
What is the length of the IDEL?
IDEL extends from March 1, 2020 to July 31, 2022.
Beginning on August 1, 2022:
What are the rights of an employee on IDEL?
Employees who take infectious disease emergency leave are generally 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 an infectious disease emergency leave.
Employers cannot ask for a doctor's note during IDEL
Benefits for Employees on IDEL?.
Employees on IDEL have a right to continue to take part in certain benefit plans that their employer may offer. These include:
The employer must continue to pay its share of the premiums for any of these plans that were offered before the leave, unless the employee tells the employer in writing that they will not continue to pay their own share of the premiums.
In most cases, employees must continue to pay their share of the premiums in order to continue to participate in these plans.
Employees who are on IDEL can also continue to participate in other benefit plans if employees who are on other types of leave are able to continue to participate in those plans.