Paid COVID-19 Leave Rights Lawscape

Keeping track with the current state of COVID paid vaccination and sick leave laws

Content

When the pandemic began, provinces enacted legislation giving employees unpaid leave for time missed due to COVID. Now that vaccines have become available, they’re adopting paid leave so employees can get vaccinated during work hours without losing pay. And now some provinces have upped the ante by providing full days of paid sick leave covering not just vaccination but also COVID-related testing, self-isolation and illness while allowing employers to seek reimbursement from the government. Rather than mandatory legislation, a few provinces have adopted voluntary government programs subsidizing the costs of employers for providing employees’ paid COVID sick leave. Here’s a snapshot summary of this fluid and dynamic situation as of May 2021. See Know The Laws to find out the details of what’s going on in each province.

KEY: 

Red: Paid COVID vaccination and sick leave

Pink: Paid COVID vaccination leave

White: Voluntary subsidies program for paid sick leave

Black: No paid leave or voluntary subsidies

NOTES

(1) No Federal paid COVID leave or voluntary subsidies program

(2) BC paid sick leave becomes permanent in 2022

(3) Manitoba has mandatory vaccination leave and voluntarily subsidized sick leave

(4) PEI is the only jurisdiction that had paid sick leave before pandemic—1 day after 5 years’ employment

(5) Saskatchewan has table paid sick leave legislation