Federally regulated employees in Canada can earn up to 10 paid sick days each year under the Canada Labour Code. These days are officially called medical leave with pay.
You earn your first three paid sick days after 30 days of continuous employment. After that, you earn one additional day at the beginning of each month after completing one month of continuous employment, up to the annual maximum of 10 days.
These rules apply only to federally regulated workplaces. If you work for a bank, airline, telecommunications company, railway or certain interprovincial transportation businesses, federal employment law can apply to you.
On This Page:
- 1. How Many Federal Sick Days Do You Get?
- 2. Who Qualifies?
- 3. What Can Federal Sick Days Be Used For?
- 4. Doctor’s Notes & Notice
- 5. What If You Need More Than 10 Days?
- 6. Can You Be Fired for Taking Sick Leave?
How Many Federal Sick Days Do You Get?
You can earn up to 10 days of paid medical leave each year.
You do not receive all 10 days when you start a new job.
The basic accrual works like this:
- After 30 days of continuous employment: You earn 3 paid medical leave days
- After that: You earn 1 additional day after completing each further month of continuous employment
- Maximum: You can earn up to 10 paid medical leave days in the year
Do unused federal sick days carry over?
Yes. Unused paid medical leave carries over into the next year, up to a maximum of 10 days.
But carried-over days count toward the 10-day maximum for the new year.
For example, if you carry seven unused days into the new year, you can earn three more days that year.
If you carry over all 10 days, you start the year with the maximum. Even if you use those days early in the year, you do not start earning another 10 immediately.
Can you take half a sick day?
Your employer can require each period of paid medical leave to be at least one full day.
An employer can choose to allow smaller portions of a day, but the Canada Labour Code allows it to require leave to be taken in periods of at least one day.
Who Qualifies for Federal Paid Sick Days?
Paid federal medical leave applies to employees in federally regulated workplaces, including part-time, casual and fixed-term employees.
Common l include:
- Banks
- Airlines and airports
- Telecommunications
- Radio and television broadcasting
- Railways crossing provincial or international borders
- Interprovincial trucking and transportation
- Certain shipping and port operations
- Pipelines crossing provincial or international borders
- Most federal Crown corporations
Where you physically work does not decide whether the federal rules apply. An employee at a federally regulated bank in Ontario, Alberta or BC is still covered by federal labour standards.
Most employees working for provincially regulated businesses follow their province’s sick-leave rules instead.
Do part-time employees get federal sick days?
Yes. Part-time, casual and fixed-term employees in federally regulated workplaces can earn paid medical leave.
Student interns are not entitled to the federal paid medical leave benefit.
What Can Federal Sick Days Be Used For?
Federal paid medical leave can be used when you need time away from scheduled work for your own health or medical needs.
You can use it for:
- Personal illness
- Injury
- Medical appointments during working hours
- Organ or tissue donation
- Quarantine
The leave can apply to physical or mental-health conditions that prevent you from working.
Can you use a federal sick day for a medical appointment?
Yes. Paid medical leave can be used for your own medical appointments during working hours.
You cannot use paid medical leave for a day when you were not scheduled or reasonably expected to be available for work.
Do federal sick days stack with your employer’s paid sick leave?
Not necessarily. You don’t automatically receive another 10 federal days on top of an existing employer plan that already provides an equivalent or better paid medical leave benefit.
If your employment contract or workplace plan already provides at least 10 paid medical days and meets the Canada Labour Code requirements, that plan can satisfy the federal obligation.
Can Your Employer Ask for a Doctor’s Note?
Your employer can require a medical certificate if your medical leave lasts at least five consecutive days.
The request must be made in writing and no later than 15 days after you return to work.
The certificate confirms that you were incapable of working during the medical leave.
The Code does not give an employer the same medical-certificate right for a one- or two-day federal sick absence.
How much notice do you have to give?
If the medical leave can be planned in advance, give your employer written notice as early as possible.
The Canada Labour Code calls for four weeks’ written notice where possible.
Obviously, many illnesses cannot be predicted four weeks ahead. If you wake up sick or have an unexpected medical emergency, notify your employer as soon as possible and follow the normal workplace call-in procedure.
What If You Need More Than 10 Sick Days?
Running out of paid sick days does not automatically mean you have to return to work while you are still medically unable to work.
The Canada Labour Code provides up to 27 weeks of medical leave for qualifying medical reasons.
The 10 paid sick days are the paid part of the federal medical-leave rules. After your paid days are exhausted, additional protected medical leave is generally unpaid unless another income source applies.
Depending on your situation, income can come from:
- A workplace sick-leave plan
- Short-term disability benefits
- Long-term disability benefits
- EI sickness benefits
Job-protected leave and income replacement are different questions. A benefit ending does not automatically mean that you are medically able or legally required to return to full duties.
What if you have a disability?
Your employer’s obligations can continue beyond your paid sick days and statutory medical leave.
If an illness or injury amounts to a disability, your employer can also have a duty to accommodate your restrictions to the point of undue hardship.
Accommodation can include additional medically supported time away, modified duties, reduced hours or a gradual return to work where appropriate.
Can You Be Fired for Taking Federal Sick Days?
Your employer can’t fire, suspend, lay off, demote or discipline you because you properly take—or plan to take—medical leave protected by the Canada Labour Code.
Taking sick leave does not make you immune from every legitimate workplace decision. An employer can still make decisions for genuine reasons unrelated to the leave.
But if your employer starts disciplining you, cutting your hours, threatening your job or terminating you because you took medical leave, the situation deserves immediate review.
What if you are fired while on medical leave?
Don’t assume the termination is lawful simply because your employer says the decision was unrelated to your illness.
The timing, reason given by the employer and events leading to the dismissal all matter.
Eligible federally regulated employees can also have unjust dismissal rights under the Canada Labour Code.
If you are terminated, don’t sign a release before having your full severance package reviewed—you may be owed as much as 24 months’ pay.
Federal Sick Days FAQs
Do federally regulated employees get 10 paid sick days immediately?
No. You earn three paid medical leave days after completing 30 days of continuous employment, then earn additional days monthly until you reach the annual maximum of 10.
Are federal sick days paid at your normal rate?
Yes. A paid medical leave day is paid at your regular rate of wages for your normal hours of work.
Can your employer deny a federal sick day?
Your employer can’t refuse protected paid medical leave simply because it would prefer you to work. You must have earned the paid day and use it for a reason covered by the Canada Labour Code.
Are federal sick days the same as personal days?
No. Federal medical leave with pay is for your own qualifying medical needs. Personal leave is a separate Canada Labour Code entitlement for certain family, education, citizenship and urgent matters.
Are federal sick days the same as EI sickness benefits?
No. Federal sick days are paid by your employer for accrued medical-leave days. EI sickness benefits are a separate government income-replacement program for employees who are unable to work for medical reasons.
Get Help With a Federal Sick Leave Problem
Using a protected sick day should not put your job at risk.
Samfiru Tumarkin LLP helps non-unionized federally regulated employees deal with denied medical leave, discipline, failed disability accommodation, improper return-to-work demands and termination.
If your employer has punished or fired you for taking medical leave, our employment lawyers can challenge the decision and secure the full severance pay and compensation you are legally entitled to receive.