Q: I own a small business and an employee at my company has requested time off to care for a sick family member. How much time am I required to give them, and what documentation or information are they required to provide the company?
A: Ontario’s Employment Standards Act (ESA) entitles virtually all employees — whether full-time, part-time, contract or permanent — to time off for family medical leave.
Under the ESA, family medical leave is unpaid, job-protected leave of up to 28 weeks in a 52-week period. Employees are entitled to this leave regardless of how long they have been with their employer.
The ESA has provided the following list of people for whom employees may take family medical leave:
• parents (including step or foster parents of the employee or their spouse);
• children (including a step or foster child of the employee or their spouse);
• siblings (including a brother, stepbrother, sister or stepsister);
• a grandparent (or step-grandparent) of the employee or their spouse;
• grandchildren (or a step-grandchild) of the employee or their spouse;
• in-laws (including a brother-in-law, stepbrother-in-law, sister-in-law or stepsister-in-law) as well as a son-in-law or daughter-in-law of the employee or their spouse;
• an uncle or aunt of the employee or their spouse;
• a nephew or niece of the employee or their spouse;
• the spouse of the employee’s grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew.
Employees must notify their employer in writing as soon as possible that they will be taking family medical leave.
If the leave begins before the employee has had a chance to provide written notice, they must do so as soon as reasonably possible after the leave starts.
If the leave is taken in separate periods rather than all at once, the employee must provide written notice each time a new period of leave begins.
Medical certificate required
Employees are required to provide their employer with a medical certificate supporting the leave. The cost of obtaining the certificate is the employee’s responsibility.
The certificate must name the family member and confirm that they have a serious medical condition with a significant risk of death within a 26-week period.
The certificate does not need to specify the nature of the medical condition.
Employees are not required to have the certificate in hand before starting their leave, but one must eventually be provided.
If the employer never receives the certificate, the employee is not entitled to the leave — meaning their position is not protected under the ESA’s family medical leave provisions.
Family medical leave may also be taken to care for a person who considers the employee to be like family, even if they are not related by blood.
In such cases, the employee must provide their employer — if requested — with a copy of the compassionate care benefits attestation form, available from Employment and Social Development Canada.
Finally, the family member does not need to reside in Ontario for the employee to be eligible for family medical leave.
