sick days carried over during maternity leave

[Angele Lalonde]

#94499

Forum: Private

Hi,
We have a very generous sick day accrual policy in which employees accrue up to 10 days in a year and unused sick time can be carried forward year to year up to a maximum of 40 days. My question is: are we required to carry forward those unused sick days when an employee takes a leave such as maternity leave? Our policy states that unused sick time is not paid out on termination of employment but there is nothing specific to what happens to those sick days when an employee is off on sick leave. When an employee takes maternity leave, an ROE is issued and all remaining vacation pay is paid out – doesn’t this then mean that they would lose any accrued sick time and this would reset and begin to accrue anew on their return?

[Haley O’Halloran]

#94502

Hello! Sick days typically do not carry over while an employee is on maternity leave; however, since you have a unique policy at your workplace that involves sick time being carried over year by year, the amount of sick days they accrued before going on maternity leave will stay with them while they are on leave and when they return.

Most jurisdictions require employers to continue providing standard employee benefits, including sick leave, during maternity leave. BUT, while on maternity leave, an employee does not accrue additional sick days – so they would only have access to what they accrued before taking leave.

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