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Bill 4, Stay Home If You Are Sick Act, 2022

Sattler, Peggy

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Bill 4 Original (PDF)

EXPLANATORY

NOTE

The

Bill makes the following amendments to the Employment

Standards Act, 2000 :

1. Sections

50, 50.0.1 and 50.0.2, which deal with sick leave, family responsibility leave

and bereavement leave, respectively, are replaced with a new

section 50 that

provides for personal emergency leave due to a personal illness, injury or

medical emergency, the death, illness, injury or medical emergency of a listed

family member or certain urgent matters. Under the new

section 50, an employee

is entitled t o

10 days of paid leave in a calendar year.

2. Currently,

section 50.1 of the Act provides for unpaid leave in situations related to

declared emergencies and infectious disease emergencies. That

section is

amended to provide that employees are entitled to take the first 14 days of any

such leave in a calendar year as paid leave.

3. The

Act is also amended to require the Minister to implement a financial support

program for employers to help employers adapt to any increased costs associated

with paid personal emergency leave under

section 50, as those provisions are

amended by the Bill. Payment may only be made if the Legislature has

appropriated money for the purpose of the program.

Bill 4 2022

Act to amend the Employment Standards Act, 2000 with respect to paid leave

Her

Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the

Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

Sections 50, 50.0.1 and 50.0.2 of the Employment Standards

Act, 2000 are repealed and the following substituted:

Personal

Emergency Leave

Personal

emergency leave

Definition

(1) In

this section,

“qualified

health practitioner” means,

(

a) a

person who is qualified to practise as a physician, a registered nurse or a

psychologist under the laws of the jurisdiction in which care or treatment is

provided to the employee or to an individual described in subsection (3), or

(

b) in

the prescribed circumstances, a member of a prescribed class of health

practitioners.

Personal

emergency leave

(2) An

employee is entitled to a leave of absence because of any of the following:

1. A

personal illness, injury or medical emergency.

2. The

death, illness, injury or medical emergency of an individual described in

subsection (3).

3. An

urgent matter that concerns an individual described in subsection (3).

Same

(3) Paragraphs

2 and 3 of subsection (2) apply with respect to the following individuals:

1. The

employee’s spouse.

2. A

parent, step-parent or foster parent of the employee or the employee’s spouse.

3. A

child, step-child or foster child of the employee or the employee’s spouse.

4. A

child who is under legal guardianship of the employee or the employee’s spouse.

5. A

brother, step-brother, sister or step-sister of the employee.

6. A

grandparent, step-grandparent, grandchild or step-grandchild of the employee or

the employee’s spouse.

7. A

brother-in-law, step-brother-in-law, sister-in-law or step-sister-in-law of the

employee.

8. A

son-in-law or daughter-in-law of the employee or the employee’s spouse.

9. An

uncle or aunt of the employee or the employee’s spouse.

10. A

nephew or niece of the employee or the employee’s spouse.

11. The

spouse of the employee’s grandchild, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece.

12. A

person who considers the employee to be like a family member, provided the

prescribed conditions, if any, are met.

13. Any

individual prescribed as a family member for the purposes of this section.

Advising

employer

(4) An

employee who wishes to take leave under this

section shall advise his or her

employer that he or she will be doing so.

Same

(5) If

the employee must begin the leave before advising the employer, the employee

shall advise the employer of the leave as soon as possible after beginning it.

Limit

(6) Subject

to subsection (7), an employee is entitled to take a total of 10 days of paid

leave under this

section in each calendar year.

Same,

entitlement to paid leave

(7) If

an employee has been employed by an employer for less than one week, the

following rules apply:

1. The

employee is not entitled to paid days of leave under this section.

2. Once

the employee has been employed by the employer for one week or longer, the

employee is entitled to paid days of leave under subsection (6), and any unpaid

days of leave that the employee has already taken in the calendar year shall be

counted against the employee’s entitlement under that subsection.

3. Subsection

(9) does not apply until the employee has been employed by the employer for one

week or longer.

Leave

deemed to be taken in entire days

(8) If

an employee takes any part of a day as paid leave under this section, the

employer may deem the employee to have taken one day of paid leave on that day

for the purposes of subsection (6) or (7).

Paid

days first

(9) The

10 paid days must be taken first in a calendar year before any unpaid days that

are otherwise provided under the terms of the employee’s employment can be

taken.

Personal

emergency leave pay

(10) Subject

to subsections (11) and (12), if an employee takes a paid day of leave under

this section, the employer shall pay the employee,

(

a) either,

(

i) the

wages the employee would have earned had they not taken the leave, or

(ii) if

the employee receives performance-related wages, including commissions or a

piece work rate, the greater of the employee’s hourly rate, if any, and the

minimum wage that would have applied to the employee for the number of hours

the employee would have worked had they not taken the leave; or

(

b) if

some other manner of calculation is prescribed, the amount determined using

that manner of calculation.

Personal

emergency leave where higher rate of wages

(11) If

a paid day of leave under this

section falls on a day or at a time of day when

overtime pay, a shift premium or both would be payable by the employer,

(

a) the

employee is not entitled to more than his or her regular rate for any leave

taken under this section; and

(

b) the

employee is not entitled to the shift premium for any leave taken under this

section.

Personal

emergency leave on public holiday

(12) If

a paid day of leave under this

section falls on a public holiday, the employee

is not entitled to premium pay for any leave taken under this section.

Evidence

(13) Subject

to subsection (14), an employer may require an employee who takes leave under

this

section to provide evidence reasonable in the circumstances that the

employee is entitled to the leave.

Same

(14) An

employer shall not require an employee to provide a certificate from a

qualified health practitioner as evidence under subsection (13).

(1) Section 50.1 of the Act is amended by adding the following

subsection:

Clarification

(1.2.1) For

greater certainty, the entitlement to paid leave referred to in subsection

(1.2) is in addition to any other entitlement to paid leave under

section 50.

(2) Subsection

50.1 (1.3) of the Act is amended by striking out “three paid days” and

substituting “14 paid days”.

(3) Subsection

50.1 (1.7) of the Act is amended by striking out “three paid days” and

substituting “14 paid days”.

The Act is amended by adding the following section:

Financial

support program

53.2

(1) The

Minister shall implement a financial support program as described in this

section.

Same,

cost of personal emergency leave

(2) The

financial support program shall provide for temporary financial support to be

given to employers to help them adapt to any increased costs associated with

paid leave under

section 50, as established by the amendments to this Act made

by the Stay Home If You Are Sick Act, 2022 .

Same

(3) Subject

to subsection (4), the Minister may provide funding to employers under the

financial support program for the purpose referred to in subsection (2) .

Appropriation

required

(4) The

Minister may only make a payment under subsection (3) if money has been

appropriated for that purpose by the Legislature.

Commencement

This Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.

Short

title

The

short title of this Act is the Stay Home If You Are Sick Act, 2022 .

Date Bill stage Event Outcome Committee

November 28, 2022

Second Reading

Vote

Lost on division

November 24, 2022

Second Reading

Question put

Vote deferred

November 24, 2022

Second Reading

Debated

August 10, 2022

First Reading

Ordered for Second Reading

August 10, 2022

First Reading

Vote

Carried

First Reading

August 10, 2022

Carried

Second Reading

November 24, 2022

Anand, Deepak

Mississauga—Malton

Begum, Doly

Scarborough Southwest

Karpoche, Bhutila

Parkdale—High Park

Rakocevic, Tom

Humber River—Black Creek

Sattler, Peggy

London West

Smith, David

Scarborough Centre

Question put

November 28, 2022

Lost on division