Ontario Government Introduces a new bill, Bill 30, the Family Caregiver Leave Act (Employment Standards Amendment), 2011 in addition to the existing Family Medical Leave and Emergency Leave. This new law if passed will amend the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) allowing employees unpaid leave of absence of up to eight weeks to provide the care or support needed for a sick family member. This new bill has passed First Reading only at this point.

Bill 30 will allow employees to take leave in the form of full weeks only up to a maximum entitlement of eight weeks leave in a calendar year with notice to their employer to care or support for a sick individual only when a health practitioner issues a certificate stating that the individual has a serious medical condition and meets the following requirements under subsection (4) (2):

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 grandparent, step-grandparent, grandchild or step-grandchild of the employee or the employee’s spouse.
5. The spouse of a child of the employee.
6. The employee’s brother or sister.
7. A relative of the employee who is dependent on the employee for care or assistance.
8. Any individual prescribed as a family member for the purpose of this section.

As identified in the article from McCarthy Tetrault,: “There are some important differences between Family Caregiver leave and the other legislation - Family Medical Leave, and Emergency Leave:

• Family caregiver leave would apply to supporting family members with a "serious medical condition. However, family medical leave only applies in more limited situations where there is a "serious medical condition with a significant risk of death" to the family member occurring within a 26-week period.
• While the 10 day emergency leaves provisions apply to workplaces with more than 50 staff, there would be no such threshold to take family caregiver leave and no threshold exists to take family medical leave.
• Part of the emergency leave entitlement is the right to unpaid time off to deal with personal illnesses.2 As is the case with family medical leave, family caregiver leave would not cover personal sick time. Instead, it would provide for time off to support certain family members suffering "serious medical conditions.

Bill 30 makes clear that the entitlement to family caregiver leave is in addition to any entitlement to family medical leave or emergency leave. In other words, the entitlements are separate and days spent off on one leave could not be counted as days spent off on another.”

This bill may affect your attendance in the workplace. You will need to update your attendance policies to accommodate this bill once it is passed. Watch for updates on this Bill in the new year.