The British Columbia government continues its comprehensive reforms to the Employment Standards Act (the ESA) with recent changes to rules on employee sick notes and the addition of "serious personal illness or injury" leave.
Limitations on Requiring Employee Sick Notes for Short-Term Sick Leave
After 90 consecutive days of employment, an employee in British Columbia is entitled to up to 8 days of protected leave for personal injury or illness (5 days of which are paid). If requested by the employer, the employee must, as soon as practicable, provide to the employer "reasonably sufficient proof" that the employee is entitled to the leave.
However, effective November 12, 2025, the ESA and the Employment Standards Regulations were amended to prohibit employers from requesting sick notes for a "health-related leave", where such leave is 5 consecutive days or less and the employee has taken no more than one other health-related leave in the calendar year for a period of 5 consecutive days or less. A "health-related leave" means a leave or other absence from work that is related to the health, illness or injury of the employee or an employee's immediate family member, but does not include maternity leave, parental leave, compassionate care leave, critical illness or injury leave or the newly-introduced serious personal illness or injury leave. The medical notes prohibited include any notes, documents or records from doctors, nurses, other licensed health professionals under the Health Professions Act (e.g., pharmacists, dentists, psychologists or chiropractors), and similar health professionals licensed in other jurisdictions.
The following are four examples illustrating the above rule, assuming each employee in the below examples has worked for more than 90 consecutive days:
- Employee A previously took no health-related leave in the calendar year. They decide to take 5 consecutive days of sick leave. Employee A is not required to provide a sick note from their doctor to support their entitlement to the leave.
- Employee B previously took no health-related leave in the calendar year. They decide to take 6 consecutive days of sick leave. Upon the sixth day, the employer may require Employee B to provide a sick note to support their entitlement to the leave.
- Employee C previously took 6 consecutive days of sick leave in the calendar year. They decide to take 1 day of sick leave. The employer may require Employee C to provide a sick note to support their entitlement to the leave.
- Employee D previously took two separate non-consecutive 1 day sick leaves in the calendar year. They decide to take another 1 day of non-consecutive sick leave. The employer may require Employee D to provide a sick note to support their entitlement to the leave.
In calculating a period of health-related leave, each type of health-related leave taken counts as a separate health-related leave, and the period of health-related leave is considered to be taken in the calendar year in which the leave begins.
The prohibition on requiring sick notes does not apply to employer requests for health records that are unrelated to the health-related leave, or which relate to seeking necessary health information to assess whether the employee is fit to return to work after the leave or whether the employee requires an accommodation to enable the employee to return to work after the leave.
Introduction of Serious Personal Illness or Injury Leave
The Employment Standards (Serious Illness or Injury Leave) Amendment Act, 2025, which came into effect on November 27, 2025, introduces a new unpaid leave for serious personal illness or injury. Certain employees unable to work at least 1 week due to a serious personal illness or injury will be entitled to up to 27 weeks of unpaid leave within any 52-week period.
To access the leave, an employee must, as soon as reasonably practicable, provide their employer with a medical certificate from a health practitioner (doctor, nurse practitioner and certain other prescribed health professionals) stating (a) they are unable to work due to medical reasons; (b) the date on which their inability to work began (if they are already unable to work) or is expected to begin (if not yet unable to work); and (c) the date on which they are expected to return to work without any further leaves.
This leave can be taken in one consecutive block or in multiple non-consecutive units of at least one week. The leave begins on the first day of the week during which the earliest of the following occurs: (a) the date stated in the medical certificate as the beginning of the inability to work; and (b) if the leave began before the date on the certificate, the actual date the leave started. The leave ends on the last day of the week during which the earliest of the following occurs: (a) the expected return-to-work date stated in the medical certificate; (b) the employee has taken the full 27 weeks of leave; and (c) 52 weeks have passed since the leave began.
If the employee has returned from leave but needs to take a subsequent leave within the same 52-week period, a new medical certificate must be provided. However, no new certificate is required if the employee returns to work and then becomes unable to work again for the same medical reason as given for the original leave before the expected return date, and further provided that the employee has not taken the full 27 weeks and 52 weeks have not passed from the date the original leave began.
The entitlement is subject to a prescribed minimum period of employment, which will be set by future regulation. The leave is job-protected, meaning employees must be allowed to return to their position or a comparable one after their leave ends.
As mentioned above, the new prohibition against sick notes does not apply to this serious personal illness or injury leave.
Employer Takeaways
The changes described above are applicable to both unionized and non-unionized employees. Accordingly, employers should review their policies and practices relating to absences and leaves in order to ensure they are compliant with these legislative changes.
If you have any questions about any of the issues discussed in this post, or if we can help advise your business on similar or other labour-related issues, please contact one of the authors, or another member of the Bennett Jones Employment Services group, for more information.
