Changes to Sick Leave to Remove Anniversary Tracking

March 28, 2022 — The provincial government has announced that it will be changing how the new 5 days of paid sick leave requirement is calculated to make it easier on employers.    Once the legislation is passed, employers will be required to provide 5 days of paid sick leave in each calendar year.  That means for 2022 each employee can access 5 days of paid sick leave, and that will reset on January 1, 2023.

Employers are reminder that sick days do NOT accrue — new employees are entitled to 5 days as soon as their 3 month probation is over, and existing employees will have access to all 5 days on each January 1.

Previously, the law had required the 5 days to be based on each individual employee’s anniversary date with the employer, meaning businesses had to track and manage each individual employee’s entitlement.   This change will make it easier to administer this new requirement.

This change is one of several the Burnaby Board of Trade is advocating for.  Our recommendations on fixing paid sick leave include:

  1. Allow employers to calculate the 5 days based on a calendar year or another common date, instead of individual employee’s anniversary dates.
  2. Create a mechanism to allow for partial sick days, allowing employers to deduct the wages paid for hours worked during a partial sick day from the amount owed for the “sick day”.
  3. Implement a minimum-hours-worked requirement for the prior 90 days before workers are eligible for paid sick days.
  4. Reduce the number of paid sick days provided to 3