Summary#

Bill 8, the Stay Home If You Are Sick Act, 2021, would amend Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000. It would replace three existing leave sections with a new personal emergency leave, increase paid days for certain emergency-related leaves, and require the Minister to create a temporary employer-support program. The bill’s stated goal is to help employees take leave for personal or family emergencies and help employers adapt to the added costs.

• Most employees would be entitled to up to 10 paid personal emergency leave days per calendar year for their own illness, injury or medical emergency; certain family members’ emergencies or deaths; or an urgent matter concerning a listed family member.
• The family list includes spouses; parents and children, including step- and foster relationships; siblings; grandparents and grandchildren; specified in-laws, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews; and a person considered like a family member, subject to any prescribed conditions.
• The bill would increase from three to 14 the paid days for certain declared-emergency and infectious-disease-emergency leaves. The supplied explanatory note says these are the first 14 days in a calendar year.
• The Minister must implement a temporary financial-support program for employers facing increased costs from the new personal emergency leave. The Minister may provide payments only if the Legislature has appropriated money.
• The bill would start when it receives Royal Assent.

What it means for you#

• Employees: You would have to tell your employer you are taking personal emergency leave. If you have to start leave first, you must notify the employer as soon as possible afterward. An employer may ask for evidence that is reasonable in the circumstances, but cannot require a certificate from a qualified health practitioner.
• Employees in their first week: You would not be entitled to paid days during your first week with an employer. Once employed for a week, you would become entitled to the paid days; unpaid days already taken that year would count against the 10-day total. The rule requiring paid days to be used before other unpaid days would not apply until you have been employed for a week.
• Employees taking leave: The 10 paid days are a total for the calendar year, not 10 days for each reason. Part of a day may count as a full day. Pay is generally the wages you would have earned, with a different calculation for some performance-paid employees. The bill excludes overtime pay and shift premiums, and does not provide public-holiday premium pay for leave taken on a public holiday.
• Employers: You would have to provide the leave and pay required by the bill. You could ask for reasonable evidence, subject to the restriction on health-practitioner certificates. You might receive temporary financial support, but payment is not guaranteed.
• Taxpayers and the public: The bill does not set a tax, fee, or fine. It does not directly create a new public service for employees to apply for leave through.

Money#

No cost estimate is provided in the available material.

• Employers would pay for eligible personal emergency leave under the bill’s pay rules.
• The Minister must implement an employer-support program, but the bill gives no estimate of its cost or the amount any employer might receive.
• The Minister may make payments only if the Legislature appropriates money for the program.

What is unclear#

• The Employment Standards Act, 2000 itself was not supplied, so the bill’s description of current law and the full existing rules for emergency-related leaves could not be checked against the Act.
• The bill does not set application rules, payment amounts, eligibility tests, deadlines, or review and appeal steps for employer support.
• It does not specify how much money the Legislature would appropriate or how the support program would be funded.
• Some details depend on future regulations, including prescribed health-practitioner classes, family members and conditions for treating someone as like a family member.
• The bill does not explain how the new leave would interact with other workplace leave arrangements beyond saying the 10 paid days must come before unpaid days otherwise available under employment terms.

Case for#

• A possible argument for the bill is that paid leave could let employees stay home during illness or deal with family emergencies without losing all pay for those days.
• The bill covers a range of family relationships and urgent matters, not only an employee’s own illness.
• Increasing paid days for certain emergency-related leaves could provide more paid time during those situations.
• Employer support could help businesses adjust to the added cost, while leaving actual payments subject to an appropriation by the Legislature.

Case against#

• Employers would have to pay for a broader 10-day leave entitlement, but the bill does not estimate the cost or say how much support employers would receive.
• The support program is mandatory to implement, but payments are optional and depend on an appropriation. Employers therefore could face added costs without receiving support.
• The bill leaves important eligibility and evidence details to future rules or to what is “reasonable in the circumstances.”
• The bill does not set out how employees or employers would resolve disputes about whether leave qualifies or whether evidence is sufficient.