Paid Medical Leave Rules for Federal Workers

Summary#

The final regulations titled Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Canada Labour Code (Medical Leave with Pay) (SOR/2022-228) were published on November 23, 2022. They set details for the new paid medical leave rules in the Canada Labour Code, including how leave is earned, how pay is calculated for people with irregular hours, record‑keeping by employers, and enforcement. The rules come into force with the related law on December 1, 2022.

What it does#

• Clarifies how employees earn paid medical leave:
  • Employees earn 3 days after 30 days of continuous employment, then 1 day per month thereafter, up to 10 days per year.
  • Unused days carry forward and reduce the next year’s earning cap.
• Lets some employers use a non-calendar “vacation year” (if they already use one) instead of a calendar year to calculate medical‑leave entitlement.
• Treats certain longshoring workers who work for multiple employers as continuously employed for the purpose of earning leave.
• Defines the “regular rate of wages” used to calculate paid leave for people with irregular hours:
  • Usually the average daily earnings for the 20 days the employee worked before the leave, or
  • A method agreed in a collective agreement.
• Adds record‑keeping rules requiring employers to keep, for each paid medical leave: dates of the leave, the employment year it was earned in, any carried‑over days, any written request for a medical certificate, and any submitted certificate.
• Confirms that student interns (as defined in the student intern regulations) are not entitled to paid medical leave.
• Updates the Administrative Monetary Penalties (Canada Labour Code) Regulations so specific failures (e.g., not providing leave or not keeping records) can attract fines; record‑keeping failures are classed as type A, some pay/leave failures as type B or C.

Who's affected#

• Employees and employers covered by Part III of the Canada Labour Code — for example in banks, interprovincial transportation, ports and shipping, airports and airlines, telecommunications, and other federally regulated industries.
• Workers in the longshoring sector who work under multi‑employer arrangements and who meet the continuous‑employment requirement (so casual bullpen workers who are not employed for 30 days continuously may not be covered).
• Employers of people with irregular hours or non‑hourly pay (because of the rule for calculating the regular rate of wages).
• Student interns (excluded from paid leave) and the organizations that host them.
• Small businesses in the federal jurisdiction — they face additional record‑keeping and leave‑payment responsibilities.

Why it matters#

• Workers in federally regulated workplaces gain income protection for short illnesses: up to 10 days of paid medical leave per year, earned over time (not all at once unless an employer chooses to frontload).
• Employers must track and document paid medical leave details and may face administrative monetary penalties for non‑compliance.
• The rules explicitly extend eligibility to many longshoring workers who move between employers, which could change who gets paid sick days in that industry.
• The government estimated the regulations’ overall costs to employers over 10 years as about $163.1 million (present value) and estimated monetized benefits at about $78.0 million, giving a net cost of about $85.1 million over that period. These are government cost‑estimate figures and reflect expected administrative and wage costs as well as some estimated productivity gains.
• Public‑health and workplace productivity effects were cited as expected benefits: fewer people coming to work sick, faster recovery, and reduced spread of contagious illnesses.