New Leaves to Help Families proposed for the ESA

On March 5th, 2013, the Ontario government announced that it will be seeking to pass legislation that would create three new job-protected leaves. If passed, the proposed Employment Standards Amendment Act (Leaves to Help Families), 2013 will create:

• Family Caregiver Leave: up to 8 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for employees to provide care and support to a family member with a serious medical condition.
• Critically Ill Child Care Leave: up to 37 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to provide care to a critically ill child.
• Crime-Related Child Death and Disappearance Leave: up to 52 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for parents of a missing child and up to 104 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for parents of a child that has died as a result of a crime.

The proposed leaves would be would be separate from the current Family Medical Leave, which is available when a family member has a serious medical condition with a significant risk of death occurring within 26 weeks. The proposed legislation would require a doctor’s note to be provided to qualify for Family Caregiver Leave and Critically Ill Child Care Leave. The Critically Ill Child Care Leave and Crime-Related Child Death and Disappearance Leave would complement new benefits created under the federal Helping Families in Need Act.
The legislative proposals highlight an increasing public focus on protecting jobs for care-givers and recognizing the importance of family/family obligations in the context of the workplace.

For more information, see the Ministry of Labour’s News Release: http://news.ontario.ca/mol/en/2013/03/helping-families-care-for-sick-loved-ones-1.html.