November 29, 2021 - Five Paid Sick Days Coming January 1, 2022

In May 2021, the Employment Standards Act (“ESA”) was amended by adding a temporary paid COVID sick leave, ending December 31, 2021. It also added a paid sick leave for personal illness or injury commencing January 1, 2022, with the amount of days to be determined following consultation. The consultation process has concluded and on November 24, 2021, the BC Government announced there would be five paid sick leave days available annually that constitute the minimum employment standards under the ESA.

Unlike the paid COVID leave, there will be no government funding for this new leave.

As this is a minimum standard, it applies to all employees (except those exempted from the ESA) in community social services, whether full-time, part-time or casual. As unionized employees under the sectoral collective agreements already have access to sick leave benefits in excess of this new minimum standard, it is CSSEA’s view that the collective agreement provisions will continue to apply to the unionized employees, and no part of the new minimum standards would apply to them.

For non-union employees, they will become eligible for paid sick leave after 90 consecutive days of employment with an employer. The paid sick leave is in addition to the 3 days of unpaid leave available annually to employees covered by the ESA for personal illness or injury.

If an employee states they need to miss a day of work due to personal illness or injury, they will automatically be entitled to the paid sick leave. However, upon employer request, employees must provide “reasonably sufficient proof” that the employee has missed work due to personal illness or injury. And unlike the paid COVID leave, the new paid sick leave does not prohibit proof from a “medical practitioner, nurse practitioner or registered nurse.”

The amount of paid sick leave is an “average day’s pay.” It is the same as ESA statutory holiday pay, which uses a 30 calendar day period and divides the amount paid in that period (excluding overtime) by the number of days worked. For example, an employee who earned $4,000 (excluding overtime) in a 30 day period and who worked 20 days, would have an average day’s pay of $200, less statutory deductions.

Where you have non-union employees who are already covered by an existing paid sick leave policy that is equal to or better than the new minimum standards, you may wish to notify the employees that the current sick leave policy will remain in effect, as it already meets the new minimum standard, and that the five days of paid leave will not be added to the leaves already available under the policy.

However, if your existing paid sick leave program does not meet the new minimum standard, then the policy will need to be topped-up to meet it. And if you have no paid sick leave policy, then the new minimum standards will automatically apply as of January 1, 2022.

For more information, please see:
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2021PREM0073-002235

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/employment-standards-advice/paid-sick-leave#eligibility

Should you have any questions, please contact your CSSEA Advocate/Consultant.