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Bill 239, Stay Home If You Are Sick Act, 2021

Sattler, Peggy

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Debates

Acts affected

Original

Bill 239 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

seven days of paid leave and three days of unpaid 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 for the establishment of a financial support

program for employers to cover the costs of paid leave under

section 50.1 and

to help employers adapt to any increased costs associated with paid 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 239 2020

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Act, 2000 are repealed and the following substituted: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 seven days of

paid leave and three days of unpaid 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 or unpaid leave under this section,

the employer may deem the employee to have taken one day of paid or unpaid

leave on that day, as applicable, for the purposes of subsection (6) or (7).

Paid

days first

(9) The

seven paid days must be taken first in a calendar year before any of the unpaid

days can be taken under this section.

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) Subsection 50.1 (1.1) of the Act is amended by striking out

“without pay” in the portion before clause (a).

(2) Section

50.1 of the Act is amended by adding the following subsections:

Paid

leave

(1.2) An

employee who takes a leave of absence under this

section is entitled to take a

total of 14 days of paid leave in each calendar year, with the remainder of any

leave of absence to which the employee is entitled being unpaid.

Same

(1.3) 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.

Paid

days first

(1.4) The

14 paid days must be taken first in a calendar year before any of the unpaid

days can be taken under this section.

Same

(1.5) Subsections

50 (7), (8), (10), (11) and (12) apply, with necessary modifications, to paid

leave under this section.

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.

Purpose

of the program, cost of emergency leave: declared emergencies and infectious

disease emergencies

(2) The

purpose of the financial support program is to provide financial support to

employers to cover the costs associated with paid leave under

section 50.1.

Same,

cost of personal emergency leave

(3) The

financial support program has as an additional purpose: the provision of temporary

financial support 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,

2020 .

Same

(4) Subject

to subsection (5), the Minister may provide funding to employers under the

financial support program for the purposes referred to in subsections (2) and

(3) .

Appropriation

required

(5) The

Minister may only make a payment under subsection (4) 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, 2020 .

Date Bill stage Event Outcome Committee

March 1, 2021

Second Reading

Vote

Lost on division

February 25, 2021

Second Reading

Deferred vote

February 25, 2021

Second Reading

Debated

December 8, 2020

First Reading

Vote

Carried

Debates and Progress

First Reading

December 8, 2020

Committee

Second Reading

February 25, 2021

Ms. Peggy Sattler, Ms. Jane McKenna, Ms. Doly Begum, Mr. Michael Coteau, Ms. Marit Stiles, Mr. Kevin Yarde, Ms. Sara Singh, Ms. Judith Monteith-Farrell, Mr. Chris Glover, Ms. Bhutila Karpoche

Vote deferred.

March 1, 2021

Lost on recorded division.

Committee

Third Reading

Royal Assent

Acts affected - Bill 239

Most Ontario public acts are available electronically; to view copies of the Acts to be amended by this bill visit e-laws

Employment Standards Act, 2000

Legislative Assembly of Ontario

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