April 1, 2024 Implementation of the Revised Sick Leave Article

As members may be aware, a number of revisions to the health and welfare benefit articles were agreed to during the last round of collective bargaining, including strengthening the Early Intervention Program language while increasing the pay for sick leave to 100%. The changes were outlined in the Summary of Changes and the Key Dates to Note CSSEA Info.

This is a reminder that changes to the sick leave article are to take effect on April 1, 2024 and changes to the article are noted below:

ARTICLE 19 – SICK LEAVE

19.1 Sick Leave Credits

(a) Premium Reduction
The following sick leave provision may be varied by mutual agreement between the Association of Unions and the Employer in the event further Employment Insurance premium reductions for eligible sick leave plans are attainable under the Employment Insurance Act.

(b) Sick Leave Credits
All employees, whether regular or casual status, after 90 consecutive days of employment shall be entitled to paid sick leave, in accordance with the Illness or Injury Leave provisions of the Employment Standards Act. The Act currently prescribes by Regulation up to five (5) days in each calendar year.

Additional sick leave may follow for regular status employees provided that the regular status employee has met all the eligibility and entitlement requirements under this Article. The sick leave benefits in this Article will be adjusted to be inclusive of any period of leave taken in the paragraph above (ie. Sick credits earned will be reduced by any period of leave taken in each calendar year).

Regular employees who have completed their probationary period will accrue sick leave credits at the rate of one day per month to a maximum of 156 days. Upon completion of their probationary period, an employee will be credited with sick leave back to the employee's starting date, although the employee would be entitled to paid sick leave in accordance with paragraph 1 above after 90 consecutive days of employment. Upon request, an employee will be advised in writing of the balance of their sick leave credits.

(c) Each sick leave day will be compensated at 80% of the employee’s regular rate of pay.  Effective April 1, 2024, each sick leave day will be compensated at 100% of the employee's regular rate of pay.

(d) All sick leave credits are cancelled when an employee's employment is terminated.

Note: Employees hired prior to April 1, 2004 will have their existing sick banks, as of April 1, 2004, converted at a ratio of one day = one point two five days credited to their sick leave credits. In the event that this adjustment results in an employee's sick leave bank exceeding 156 days, no further sick leave accumulation will apply until such time as the sick leave bank falls below 156 days, in which case the employee's maximum accumulation will not again exceed 156 days.

Note: As of April 1, 2024, all sick bank credits accrued in employees’ sick banks will be converted to maintain actual values of the credits (sick credits accrued multiplied by 80%).

Effective April 1, 2024, eligible employees will be entitled to sick pay under the Collective Agreements at 100% of the scheduled hours lost due to illness. Until that date, continue to pay each sick hour taken at 80% of normal pay, other than the first 5 days in a calendar year based on the Employment Standards Act. For more detailed guidance on the interpretation and application of Article 19, please refer to the CSSEA Interpretation Guide.

Also, as of April 1, 2024, employers must convert the “value” of each employee’s sick bank by multiplying the days/hours of credits in the bank by 80%. This will ensure that the reserves needed to fund the banks do not change when moving from 80% to 100% sick pay. For example, an employee with 100 days or 750 hours in their sick bank as of March 31, 2024, will have 80 days or 600 hours in their sick bank as of April 1, 2024.

Should you have any further questions, please contact your HRLR Advocate or Consultant.