The
Ontario government has introduced legislation, which, if passed, would provide
eligible employees with three new types of unpaid, job-protected leaves of
absence in addition to those leaves already available under the Employment Standards Act, 2000.
The
three proposed leaves are: 1) Family Caregiver Leave; 2) Critically Ill
Childcare Leave; and 3) Crime-Related Child Death or Disappearance Leave.
Family
Caregiver Leave
Under
the proposed legislation, an employee could take an unpaid leave of up to eight
weeks to care for certain individuals when a physician (or other “qualified
health practitioner”) has declared that the individual has a “serious medical
condition”. While not exhaustive, an “individual” includes spouses, parents,
grandparents, children, grandchildren, siblings and dependent relatives.
Critically
Ill Child Care Leave
This
proposed leave would allow an employee, who has been employed for at least six
consecutive months, to take up to 37 weeks of unpaid leave to care for his or
her critically ill child.
Crime-Related
Child Death and Disappearance Leave
This
type of leave would allow an employee, who has been employed for at least six
consecutive months, to take an unpaid leave of up to 104 weeks where his or her
child dies as a result of a crime.
Similarly, that employee would be entitled to a leave of up to 52 weeks
where his or her child has disappeared as a result of a crime. However, an employee would not be entitled to
this leave of absence if he or she is charged with the crime or if it is
probable that the child was a party to the crime.
Miller
Thomson LLP will keep you apprised of all developments with respect to this
proposed legislation.
