Most employees covered by Ontario’s Employment Standards Act are entitled to three unpaid, job-protected sick days per calendar year after working for their employer for at least two consecutive weeks. Sick leave can be used for your own illness, injury or medical emergency.
These three days are Ontario’s minimum statutory protection. Your employment contract or workplace policy can provide more sick days or paid sick leave, and a longer or disability-related illness can trigger additional legal protections.
Don’t assume that using your three sick days means your employer can automatically fire you the next time you are ill. Long-term illness leave and disability-accommodation rights can protect additional absences when their requirements are met.
On This Page:
- 1. How Many Sick Days Do You Get?
- 2. Are Sick Days Paid?
- 3. What Can Sick Leave Be Used For?
- 4. Doctor’s Notes and Proof of Illness
- 5. What If You Need More Than Three Days?
- 6. Discipline, Termination and Reprisal
- 7. What Employees Should Do
How Many Sick Days Do You Get in Ontario?
You are entitled to up to three unpaid ESA sick days per calendar year once you have worked for your employer for at least two consecutive weeks.
The days don’t have to be taken together. They can be used at different points during the year when you qualify for sick leave.
Unused statutory sick days don’t carry forward into the next calendar year. The entitlement resets each year.
Can a partial sick day count as a full sick day?
Yes. If you take only part of a day as ESA sick leave, your employer can count it as one of your three statutory sick days.
For example, if you work in the morning but leave halfway through your shift because you become ill, the employer can count that absence as one full sick-leave day for purposes of the three-day entitlement.
You are still entitled to wages for the hours you actually worked.
Do sick days apply during probation?
Yes. Being on probation does not remove your ESA sick-leave rights. Once you have completed two consecutive weeks with your employer, the statutory sick-leave entitlement applies.
Are Sick Days Paid in Ontario?
No. Ontario’s three ESA sick days are unpaid. The provincial ESA does not require every employer to provide paid sick days.
You can still have paid sick days if they are provided through:
- Your employment contract
- A workplace sick-leave policy
- A compensation or benefits plan
The ESA establishes minimum rights. If your employment arrangement gives you a greater sick-leave benefit, the ESA does not reduce that greater benefit.
Do Ontario employees get 10 paid sick days?
Not under Ontario’s provincial ESA. The rule allowing employees to earn up to 10 paid medical-leave days applies to employees covered by the federal Canada Labour Code, not most provincially regulated Ontario workplaces.
Federally regulated industries include areas such as banks, airlines, telecommunications and certain interprovincial transportation businesses. If you work for a federally regulated employer, different sick-leave rules apply.
What Can Sick Leave Be Used For in Ontario?
ESA sick leave can be used when you cannot work because of your own illness, injury or medical emergency.
That can include physical or mental-health conditions when they amount to an illness, injury or medical emergency that keeps you from working.
The basic sick-leave entitlement is for your own medical issue. Ontario has separate job-protected leaves for certain family-care responsibilities and other circumstances.
Do you have to tell your employer you are sick?
Yes. Being entitled to sick leave does not mean you should simply miss work without communicating.
Ontario’s ESA requires employees to tell the employer about the leave. Generally, you should notify your employer before the leave begins. If your illness or emergency makes that impossible, notify the employer as soon as possible afterward.
Follow reasonable workplace call-in procedures where you can. A legitimate medical absence is different from an unexplained no-call, no-show.
Can Your Employer Ask for a Doctor’s Note for a Sick Day?
Your employer can’t require a certificate from a qualified health practitioner as proof for Ontario’s three ESA sick days. This rule has applied since October 28, 2024.
Your employer can still ask for evidence that is reasonable in the circumstances to establish that you qualify for the leave. It simply can’t make a medical certificate from a qualified health practitioner a condition of taking one of the three statutory sick days.
Different rules apply when the employer needs medical information for a longer leave, disability accommodation or return-to-work process.
For the detailed rules, see our guide to sick notes in Ontario.
What If You Need More Than Three Sick Days?
Needing more than three days off does not automatically mean that your job protection ends.
Ontario’s three-day sick leave is only one form of medical protection. A longer illness can engage long-term illness leave, disability accommodation or another workplace benefit.
Long-term illness leave
Qualifying Ontario employees can take up to 27 weeks of unpaid, job-protected long-term illness leave in a 52-week period. The leave has been available since June 19, 2025.
To qualify, you must have worked for your employer for at least 13 consecutive weeks and have a serious medical condition that prevents you from performing your job duties. A certificate from a qualified health practitioner is required for this longer leave.
If your condition will keep you off work for an extended period, see our guide to long-term illness leave in Ontario.
Disability accommodation
A disability can create additional workplace rights beyond the ESA’s sick-day entitlement. Ontario employers have a duty to accommodate disability-related needs to the point of undue hardship.
Accommodation can include additional medical leave, modified duties, flexible hours, schedule changes or a gradual return to work when appropriate.
Your employer can request reasonable information about your restrictions and accommodation needs, but it should limit medical requests to information genuinely needed for the accommodation process.
Learn more about the duty to accommodate in Ontario.
Can You Be Disciplined or Fired for Taking Sick Days?
Your employer can’t fire, discipline or penalize you because you properly exercised your ESA sick-leave rights. Ontario’s ESA prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for exercising protected employment-standards rights.
Prohibited retaliation can include cutting your shifts, threatening your job, disciplining you or dismissing you because you took protected sick leave.
See our guide to workplace retaliation in Ontario if your employer punishes you after you exercise a protected right.
Can your employer fire you after you use all three sick days?
Using all three ESA sick days does not automatically give your employer the right to fire you for the next medical absence.
If your illness is serious enough to qualify for another statutory leave, that leave can protect additional time away. If your condition amounts to a disability, human rights accommodation obligations can also apply.
Can calling in sick be cause for termination?
Being genuinely sick and properly reporting your absence is not just cause for termination.
Actual misconduct is different. Dishonesty about an absence, falsified medical information or repeated unexplained failures to report for work can create legitimate disciplinary issues.
If your employer has threatened or ended your employment over an absence, read whether you can be fired for calling in sick in Ontario.
Can you still get severance if you are fired while sick?
Yes. If your employer terminates you without cause, illness does not remove your right to proper termination compensation.
ESA minimums are not necessarily your full severance entitlement. Unless an enforceable employment contract limits your rights, many non-unionized employees are entitled to substantially more at common law.
Depending on factors such as your age, position, length of service and the availability of similar employment, severance can reach 24 months’ pay in appropriate cases.
See our guide to severance pay in Ontario.
What Should You Do If You Need to Take a Sick Day?
Tell your employer that you can’t work, follow the normal absence-reporting procedure and keep a record if the employer challenges your leave.
- Notify your employer promptly. Explain that you are unable to work because of illness, injury or a medical emergency.
- Follow reasonable call-in procedures. Contact the manager, scheduling line or HR contact required by your workplace where you are able to do so.
- Keep the communication. Save emails, text messages or attendance-system records confirming that you reported the absence.
- Don’t provide unnecessary medical details. If proof is requested, determine what the employer is legally entitled to ask for.
- Raise an ongoing medical condition. If you need more than a few days or have recurring disability-related absences, tell the employer enough to identify that accommodation or another leave could be required.
- Document retaliation. Keep records of discipline, threats, reduced shifts or negative comments linked to your illness or leave.
- Get advice before resigning. If your employer is denying leave, refusing accommodation or threatening your job, understand your rights before leaving voluntarily.
Ontario’s three ESA sick days are a minimum job-protection rule. They aren’t a licence for an employer to punish legitimate illness, and they aren’t the end of your rights when a medical condition lasts longer.
The Ontario employment lawyers at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP help non-unionized employees deal with denied sick leave, improper medical-documentation demands, disability accommodation, attendance discipline and termination connected to illness.
If your employer is threatening your job, cutting your shifts, refusing legitimate medical leave or telling you to resign because you are sick, contact Samfiru Tumarkin LLP before making a decision that affects your employment or compensation.