AbsentEase
Alberta sick leave law & call-off rules
Alberta has no sick-day leave by that name. Illness is covered by five unpaid personal and family responsibility days a year after ninety days and, for serious conditions, a long-term illness and injury leave that grew from 16 to 27 weeks on January 1, 2026. No certificate is required by the Code for the five days, employees owe notice when they quit, and final pay runs on one of two clocks the employer chooses. Here is what applies in 2026.
Alberta at a glance
| Statute | Employment Standards Code (RSA 2000, c. E-9) · enforced by Alberta Employment Standards, Ministry of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration (1-877-427-3731) |
|---|---|
| Statutory sick leave | 5 unpaid personal and family responsibility days per calendar year after 90 days |
| Doctor's note | Not required by the Code for the 5 days; a certificate is required for the long-term leave |
| Long-term illness | Up to 27 weeks a year after 90 days, with a certificate (since January 1, 2026) |
| Notice of termination | 1 to 8 weeks by length of service after 90 days |
| Final pay | Within 10 days after the pay period ends, or 31 days after the last day, at the employer's choice |
| Vacation pay | 4%, or 6% after 5 years, always paid out |
| Employee notice to quit | 1 week (under 2 years) or 2 weeks (2+ years) after 90 days |
Is paid sick leave required in Alberta?
No paid days; five unpaid ones after 90 days. An employee with 90 days' service may take up to five days of unpaid personal and family responsibility leave per calendar year for their own health or for family responsibilities (s. 53.982). The days do not carry over, need not be paid out, and a medical certificate or other documentation is not required by legislation, although a reasonable policy may ask for it; the leave itself cannot be refused. No employer may terminate or lay off an employee who is on the leave (s. 53.985). Serious conditions fall under the long-term illness and injury leave (s. 53.97): unpaid, after 90 days, with a medical certificate stating the estimated duration, for up to 27 weeks a year since January 1, 2026. A contract or policy that gives more applies.
How sick leave works in Alberta
| Personal and family responsibility leave | 5 unpaid days per calendar year after 90 days, for the employee's own health or family responsibilities; no carry-over, no payout (s. 53.982) |
|---|---|
| Documentation | The Code requires none for the 5 days; a reasonable policy may ask, but the leave cannot be refused |
| Long-term illness and injury leave | Unpaid, after 90 days, with a medical certificate stating the estimated duration; up to 27 weeks a year since January 1, 2026 (previously 16) (s. 53.97) |
| Protection | No termination or layoff while on either leave (ss. 53.971, 53.985); complaints under s. 82(1)(b) |
| Partial days | The Code is silent; set the rule in your policy |
| Pay | Unpaid, unless your contract, policy or collective agreement says otherwise |
The rules that apply across Canada
The duty to accommodate
Every province's human rights code, and the Canadian Human Rights Act for federally regulated employers, requires accommodating a disability to the point of undue hardship, and "disability" includes mental illness and addiction. Absences tied to a disability cannot simply collect points: tribunals expect the employer to ask what is going on, consider modified duties or a leave, and document the effort. Long or repeated absences an employee cannot control are "innocent" (non-culpable) absenteeism, which is not misconduct and cannot be disciplined; employment can end for it only when the record shows the employee is unlikely to attend regularly in the foreseeable future and accommodation has been exhausted.
Employment Insurance
Service Canada, not the employer, decides whether a former employee gets regular EI benefits. Someone who quit without just cause or was dismissed for misconduct is disqualified, so the reason code on the Record of Employment and the call-off record behind it matter: a no-call no-show treated as abandonment is usually coded as a quit, and a dismissal for breaking a known attendance rule is argued as misconduct. Either way the employer's evidence is the written policy and the time-stamped record of what the employee did and did not report.
Unionized workplaces
Where a collective agreement applies, attendance discipline follows its just-cause and progressive-discipline clauses and any grievance goes to arbitration. Arbitrators expect the same things the statutes do: a written rule the employee knew about, consistent enforcement, and a contemporaneous record of each absence.
Banks, airlines, rail, interprovincial trucking, telecoms and a few other industries are federally regulated and follow the Canada Labour Code instead of Alberta's statute.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and dismissal in Alberta
Alberta's five personal and family responsibility days are the carve-out an attendance policy must respect: a call-off that uses one cannot be refused, cannot be pointed, and cannot cost the employee their job (s. 53.985), even though you may ask for reasonable documentation under your own policy. Beyond the five days, and outside the long-term illness leave and the duty to accommodate a disability, a no-call no-show is culpable conduct that progressive discipline can address. The Code does not define just cause and puts the burden on the employer, so the dismissal that owes no notice is the one that follows a known written rule, documented warnings and consistent enforcement; anything less is a termination that owes s. 56 notice or pay. Because employees owe you notice too (s. 58), a walk-out is itself a breach, but the Code gives no right to deduct for it. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off line keeps the time-stamped record Employment Standards and the courts will ask for.
After a no call, no show termination in Alberta
| Does the statute define job abandonment? | No. The Code is silent; its nearest rule is a laid-off employee who fails to return within 7 days of a written recall. At common law abandonment is a resignation the employer must prove with clear and unequivocal facts, so document your attempts to reach the employee, send a written deadline, rule out a Division 7.5 or 7.6 leave or a disability, and only then confirm the resignation in writing. If the resignation is wrong, s. 56 notice or pay is owed. (common law; Betts v. IBM Canada, 2015 ONSC 5298; Beggs v. Westport Foods, 2011 BCCA 76) |
|---|---|
| Final pay if you treat it as a dismissal | All earnings, including termination pay, are due within 10 consecutive days after the end of the pay period in which employment ended, or within 31 consecutive days after the last day of employment, whichever the employer chooses. (Employment Standards Code s. 8(2)) |
| Final pay if you treat it as a resignation | Same deadlines. After 90 days the employee owed you one or two weeks' notice (s. 58), but the Code gives no right to deduct for notice not given. (ss. 8(2), 58) |
| Vacation pay at separation | Always owed: 4% of wages (6% after 5 years), paid by the same final-pay deadline. (s. 34.2) |
| Employment Insurance | Service Canada decides. A claimant who voluntarily left without just cause, or who lost the job because of their own misconduct, is disqualified from regular benefits; a no-call no-show treated as abandonment is usually coded as a quit (Record of Employment code E) and a dismissal for breaking a known attendance rule as a dismissal (code M). Either way Service Canada may ask for the written policy and the call-off record. (Employment Insurance Act, ss. 29–30) |
Before treating silence as a resignation, try to reach the employee more than once, in writing, and keep the attempts: an employer who assumes abandonment after one missed shift usually ends up having dismissed someone, with the notice and severance that follow.
Write an attendance policy that fits Alberta
A written call-off rule, a single channel employees use to report an absence, and a carve-out for the statutory leaves above are what make attendance discipline hold up in Alberta. Our attendance policy guide walks through each section, and what a call-off hotline is explains the record it produces.
Minimum notice of termination in Alberta
| Length of service | Minimum notice (or pay in lieu) |
|---|---|
| 90 days or less | None |
| Over 90 days to under 2 years | 1 week |
| 2 to under 4 years | 2 weeks |
| 4 to under 6 years | 4 weeks |
| 6 to under 8 years | 5 weeks |
| 8 to under 10 years | 6 weeks |
| 10 years or more | 8 weeks |
Employment Standards Code s. 56. No notice is owed where employment is terminated for just cause (s. 55(2)); the Code does not define it and the burden of proof is on the employer. Other exceptions cover definite terms of a year or less, refusal of reasonable alternative work, seasonal and casual work, and layoffs (a temporary layoff may run 90 days in 120, and an employee who does not return within 7 days of a written recall is terminated without notice). Fifty or more terminations at one location within four weeks need four weeks' notice to the Minister. The common law usually requires more notice than the statute; the Code is the floor.
Final pay and vacation pay
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is dismissed | All earnings, including termination pay, within 10 consecutive days after the end of the pay period in which employment ended, or within 31 consecutive days after the last day of employment, at the employer's choice | Employment Standards Code ss. 8(2), 57 |
| Employee quits or abandons the job | Same deadlines. After 90 days the employee owed 1 week (under 2 years) or 2 weeks (2+ years) of notice (s. 58); the Code gives no right to deduct for notice not given | ss. 8(2), 58 |
| Vacation pay | 4% of wages (6% after 5 years): unpaid vacation pay plus the percentage on wages since the last entitlement date, by the same deadlines | s. 34.2 |
| Unused personal and family days | Not paid out: the Code says unused days need not be paid | s. 53.982 |
A contract, policy or collective agreement that gives more than the Code applies in its place.
Leave employers must provide in Alberta
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Personal and family responsibility | Yes — unpaid | 5 days per calendar year after 90 days (s. 53.982) |
| Long-term illness and injury | Yes — unpaid | Up to 27 weeks a year after 90 days, with a certificate (s. 53.97) |
| Bereavement | Yes — unpaid | 3 days per calendar year after 90 days, including pregnancy loss; no certificate (s. 53.983) |
| Domestic violence | Yes — unpaid | 10 days per calendar year after 90 days (s. 53.981) |
| Compassionate care | Yes — unpaid | 27 weeks with a certificate (s. 53.9) |
| Critical illness | Yes — unpaid | 36 weeks (child) or 16 weeks (adult) with a certificate (s. 53.96) |
| Reservist | Yes — unpaid | After 12 consecutive weeks, as long as needed, 4 weeks' notice (s. 53.2) |
| Citizenship ceremony | Yes — unpaid | Half a day (s. 53.984) |
| Vacation | Yes | 2 weeks (3 after 5 years), pay 4% / 6% |
The death or disappearance of a child leave (s. 53.95) also exists. Jury duty is governed by the Jury Act and voting time by the Election Act rather than the Code.
The Alberta employer's attendance playbook
- Put it in writing. A written policy — the call-off deadline and channel, the steps of progressive discipline, the no-call no-show rule, and a carve-out for the statutory leaves and accommodated absences above — is what makes discipline defensible. Our attendance policy guide walks through it.
- Give call-offs one channel. "Tell whoever answers" is how records get lost. One number every employee texts or calls makes the record automatic.
- Log everything with timestamps. Employment-standards complaints, human rights applications and arbitrations are won on contemporaneous records, not recollections.
- Discipline progressively and consistently. Canadian adjudicators expect warnings before dismissal for attendance, and uneven enforcement turns a lawful dismissal into a reprisal or discrimination claim.
- Screen call-offs for protected reasons before applying any step — a statutory sick or family day, or an absence tied to a disability, gets a different track than an overslept alarm.
Comparing jurisdictions? See every published guide on the Canadian sick leave laws hub, or the US state guides.