The Stay Home If You Are Sick Act, 2022 replaces the Act’s separate sick, family responsibility and bereavement leaves with a single personal emergency leave that covers an employee’s own medical emergencies, a wide set of family-member illnesses or urgent matters, and provides employees with 10 paid days per calendar year. The bill also increases the paid portion of statutory leave tied to declared emergencies and infectious-disease emergencies so that the first 14 days in a calendar year are paid.
To offset employer costs, the bill requires the Minister to implement a temporary financial support program to help employers adapt to the increased paid-leave costs; however, payments can only be made if the Legislature appropriates funds. The package changes payroll obligations, narrows paperwork requirements for employees seeking leave, and creates an as-yet-undetailed subsidy mechanism that employers will watch closely.
At a Glance
What It Does
It collapses multiple existing leaves into a single personal emergency leave with 10 paid days per calendar year, mandates that paid days be used before other paid leave, expands paid leave tied to declared/infectious-disease emergencies to 14 days, and creates a Minister-run financial support program conditional on legislative appropriation.
Who It Affects
Ontario employers and their payroll/HR teams, especially small businesses and employers with high rates of part‑time or precarious work; employees across sectors who need short-term medical or family-related leave; provincial administrators who must design and deliver the subsidy.
Why It Matters
The bill sets a provincial statutory floor for paid sick/personal emergency leave and reduces the need for medical certificates, shifting more short-term absence costs onto employers while promising (but not guaranteeing) a temporary subsidy—an important operational and cash-flow change for affected employers and HR compliance programs.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill replaces sections of the Employment Standards Act that separately covered sick leave, family responsibility leave and bereavement leave with one unified personal emergency leave. That new section defines eligible reasons broadly: the employee’s own illness or medical emergency, the death/illness/injury/medical emergency of an enumerated set of family members (a long list including parents, children, siblings, grandparents, in‑laws and people the employee treats as family), and urgent matters concerning those same individuals.
Under the scheme, employees get 10 paid days of personal emergency leave in each calendar year. The statute treats part-day absences as a full day for purposes of the 10‑day limit unless an employer’s records demonstrate otherwise, and it requires employees to take the paid days first before using any other paid leave their employment might offer.
The bill also contains special timing rules for very new hires: employees who have been employed for less than one week are not yet entitled to paid days, and unpaid days taken before the one‑week mark get counted against the entitlement once the employee reaches one week of service.On pay, the employer must pay either the wages the employee would have earned or, for performance-related pay (commissions, piece rate), the greater of the employee’s hourly rate and the applicable minimum wage for the hours missed; the Act allows a prescribed alternative calculation if regulations set one. The bill also limits extra payments: an employee cannot claim overtime, shift premiums or holiday premium pay simply because a paid leave day falls on those periods.For employer verification, employers may require evidence reasonable in the circumstances but the bill expressly forbids requiring a certificate from a “qualified health practitioner.” The definition of qualified health practitioner is broad—physicians, registered nurses or psychologists where applicable—and may be expanded by regulation to include other practitioners in prescribed circumstances.
Separately, the bill amends the statutory emergency-leave regime so that the first 14 days of leave for declared or infectious-disease emergencies in a calendar year are paid; the text clarifies this paid emergency leave is in addition to the new personal emergency leave entitlement.Finally, the Act obliges the Minister to implement a temporary financial support program to help employers with increased costs resulting from the new paid leave rules, but the Minister may only make payments if the Legislature has appropriated money for that purpose. The bill comes into force on Royal Assent and is titled the Stay Home If You Are Sick Act, 2022.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill treats any part-day absence taken under the personal emergency leave as a full paid day for the purpose of the 10-day annual limit (employers may still count it as a full day).
Employees employed for less than one week are not entitled to paid days; unpaid days taken before the one-week mark are later counted against the employee’s annual paid entitlement once they reach one week of service.
When calculating pay for a paid leave day for performance-based workers, employers must use the greater of the worker’s hourly rate and the minimum wage for the hours the worker would have worked.
An employer may require evidence 'reasonable in the circumstances' for leave, but the Act expressly prohibits requiring a certificate from a qualified health practitioner as proof.
The Minister’s employer-support program is discretionary and pay-outs are conditional on the Legislature appropriating money—there is no automatic or guaranteed reimbursement mechanism in the text.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Every bill we cover gets an analysis of its key sections.
Definitions and who counts as a family member
These subsections define 'qualified health practitioner' and enumerate which relatives and similar persons qualify for family‑related leave. The family list is extensive (spouse, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, in‑laws, nieces/nephews, and persons treated as family) and includes a backstop for any individuals prescribed in regulation. Practically, this reduces disputes about who qualifies, but it also delegates scope expansion to regulation through the 'prescribed' hooks.
Notice, entitlement, part‑day and new‑hire rules
These provisions require an employee to advise the employer when taking leave and allow quick-start leave followed by notice 'as soon as possible.' They set the core entitlement: 10 paid days per calendar year and rules that let employers deem part-days as full days. Importantly, employees with less than one week of service are initially ineligible for paid days; any unpaid days taken before one week are later counted against the annual entitlement once the employee reaches one week of employment. The statute also requires employees to exhaust the 10 paid days before using other paid leave their job might offer.
How paid leave is calculated and limits on extra pay
This chunk sets pay mechanics: employers must pay either what the employee would have earned, or for performance-based pay, the greater of the hourly rate and minimum wage; the Act allows regulations to prescribe a different calculation. It also prevents stacking: overtime and shift premiums are not payable for leave days, nor is premium pay when a paid leave day falls on a public holiday. Employers must therefore factor ordinary wages into cost models, not premium rates.
Evidence standard for leave claims
The Act permits employers to request evidence 'reasonable in the circumstances' to support a leave claim but explicitly bans requiring a certificate from a 'qualified health practitioner.' That reduces the administrative and privacy burden on employees and limits medicalization of routine short absences, while leaving room for employers to seek other forms of verification (e.g., documentation, attestations) tailored to the situation.
Paid leave for declared or infectious-disease emergencies increased to 14 days
The bill amends the emergency-leave rules to make the first 14 days in a calendar year paid leave where subsection conditions apply, up from three paid days in the prior text. It also clarifies that this paid emergency leave is in addition to the 10 paid personal emergency days, creating a distinct entitlement stream for declared/infectious emergencies.
Minister’s temporary financial support program; commencement
Section 53.2 requires the Minister to implement a temporary program providing financial support to employers to adapt to increased paid-leave costs, but payments can only be made if the Legislature appropriates funds. The Act comes into force on Royal Assent and adopts 'Stay Home If You Are Sick Act, 2022' as its short title—meaning operational details of the subsidy must be built by regulation or program design after passage.
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Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Low-wage and precarious workers: The statutory 10 paid days and expanded emergency pay reduce income loss from short-term illness and family emergencies, lowering the financial pressure to work while sick.
- Public health authorities and workplaces: By lowering the barrier to staying home when ill, the bill supports outbreak control and reduces presenteeism across sectors with public-facing roles.
- Employees without easy access to physicians: Prohibiting mandatory medical certificates removes a common gatekeeping burden for short-term leave, simplifying access for those with limited access to care.
- Payroll and HR vendors: Employers will need updated payroll rules and tracking modules (part-day deeming, first-day prioritization, special calculation for performance wages), creating demand for compliance solutions.
- Employers who qualify for the subsidy: Those that receive Ministerial support may see partial offsetting of cash-flow impacts from the new paid-leave costs.
Who Bears the Cost
- Employers, especially small businesses: The primary financial burden for the paid days falls on employers’ payrolls, and smaller firms face tighter cash‑flow risks if subsidy funding is delayed or withheld.
- Provincial government treasury: If the program is funded, the province will assume fiscal costs; if not funded, employers retain full cost and the policy’s public-health aims may be undermined.
- HR and compliance teams: Employers must redesign policies, update payroll systems, and document 'reasonable' evidence practices; that administrative work increases compliance costs.
- Temporary-hours and gig-style scheduling models: Employers who rely on high turnover or very short shifts may face behavioral incentives to adjust hiring or scheduling to limit entitlements (e.g., fewer shifts before one-week mark).
- Labour-relations administrators: Collective agreements and employer‑provided leave schemes will need harmonization with the new statutory floor, generating negotiation and implementation costs.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill pits two legitimate goals against each other: protecting public health and workers’ incomes by guaranteeing paid leave, versus limiting financial and administrative burdens on employers. The conditional nature of the subsidy (payments only if the Legislature appropriates funds) intensifies the dilemma—rights are created on paper, but the practical cost bearing depends on political choices about funding and program design.
The bill leaves several implementation details unresolved and creates practical trade-offs. It delegates important scope decisions to regulation—'prescribed' family members and 'prescribed circumstances' for qualified practitioners—so the actual reach of the leave and the pool of acceptable health practitioners could change once regulations are set.
The temporary support program lacks any design detail in the text: the bill does not specify eligibility criteria, reimbursement rates, timing of payments or whether the program will be administered as wage‑loss reimbursement, tax credit, or direct subsidy, all of which drive employer behaviour and cash‑flow outcomes.
Enforcement and verification also present tension. Allowing employers to demand 'reasonable' evidence but barring mandatory clinician certificates prevents routine doctor visits for short absences but leaves employers and adjudicators to debate what qualifies as reasonable.
That ambiguity will produce case-by-case disputes and could increase burdens on the labour ministry or tribunals. Finally, the one-week rule for paid entitlement can create perverse incentives—shortening shifts or delaying hires—to avoid triggering paid-day obligations, a real operational risk for vulnerable workers unless regulators or enforcement guidance address it.
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