You can contact an employee on statutory leave to keep in touch and make arrangements for his/her return but not for work-related purposes. In other words, you can’t ask employees to perform any kind of work assignments while they’re on leave. Suggest including language in your leave policies requiring employees to maintain regular contact with their supervisor or HR during the leave. I’m pretty sure there’s at least one article in HRI discussing this issue and providing model language. You can email me at glennd@bongarde.com if you have trouble finding it.
In terms of leave NOT required by employment standards laws, you can pretty much set whatever rules you want. Hope that helps. Glenn
