A new unpaid leave of absence for serious personal injury and illness has taken effect in British Columbia. Effective November 27, 2025, the BC Employment Standards Act was amended to provide employees working in provincially-regulated organizations with up to 27 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave, within a 52-week period, in the event of a serious personal illness or injury.
Unlike the previously noted ban on sick notes for short-term health-related leave, to access a leave for serious illness or injury, an employee must obtain a certificate from a health practitioner stating the following:
- The employee is unable to work due to medical reasons;
- The date on which the employee’s inability to work began or is expected to begin;
- The date on which the employee is expected to be able to return to work.
The serious personal illness or injury leave is available to all employees, regardless of how long they have been employed. Leave must be taken in units of one or more full weeks with partial weeks counted as a full week. Upon conclusion of the leave, employers are to return employees to the position they were in prior to the leave, or to a comparable position.
More information on the new serious personal illness or injury leave can be found here.
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Refresher on Job-Protected Leaves in BC
Below is a summary of all the job-protected leaves provided by the BC Employment Standards Act for which employees working in provincially-regulated BC companies are eligible. Please note that these are minimum required standards in BC and employers can, at their discretion, establish leave policies which exceed these minimum standards.
Illness or injury leave (also known as sick leave)
- After 90 days of employment, employees can take up to 5 paid days and 3 unpaid days per calendar year for their own illness or injury.
Maternity leave
- Pregnant employees can take up to 17 consecutive weeks of unpaid maternity leave.
Parental leave
- Employees can take up to 62 weeks of unpaid parental leave.
Family responsibility leave
- Employees can take up to 5 days of unpaid leave in each employment year to help with the care, health, or education of a child under the age of 19 in their care, or for the care or health of any member of their immediate family.
Compassionate care leave
- Employees are entitled to take up to 27 weeks of unpaid leave within a 52-week period to care for a family member who is terminally ill.
Critical illness or injury leave
- Employees can take unpaid leave to care for a family member whose health has significantly changed as a result of an illness or injury, if the life of the family member is at risk. The employee can take up to 36 weeks to care for a child and up to 16 weeks to care for a family member over the age of 19.
Bereavement leave
- Employees can take up to 3 days of unpaid leave if an immediate family member dies.
Jury duty leave
- An employee can take unpaid jury duty leave to attend court as a juror.
Reservists’ leave
- An employee who is also a reservist for the Canadian Forces is entitled to 20 days of unpaid leave per calendar year to participate in Canadian Forces training activities.
- An employee who is also a reservist for the Canadian Forces is entitled to unpaid leave for as long as they are deployed to a Canadian Forces operation inside or outside of Canada, engaged in a pre-deployment or post-deployment activity required by the Canadian Forces, or deployed to assist with an emergency or its aftermath in Canada.
Leave respecting the disappearance of a child
- Employees can take up to 52 weeks of unpaid leave if their child disappears as the result of a crime.
Leave respecting the death of a child
- Employees are entitled to 104 weeks of unpaid leave if their child dies.
Leave respecting domestic violence or sexual violence
- An employee can take up to 5 days of paid leave and 5 more days of unpaid leave per calendar year if they are impacted by domestic or sexual violence. If necessary, an employee can take up to 15 more weeks of unpaid leave.
COVID-19 related leaves
- Employees can take unpaid COVID-19 leave if they are unable to work due to any number of COVID-19-related reasons detailed by the BC Employment Standards Act
- Employees can take up to 3 hours of paid leave to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
More information on these job-protected leaves can be found on the BC Employment Standards Act website.
Posted by Clear HR Consulting on January 20, 2026
