AbsentEase
Canada Labour Code sick leave law & call-off rules
Federally regulated employers (banks, airlines, rail, interprovincial trucking and buses, telecoms, broadcasting, ports and the like) follow Part III of the Canada Labour Code instead of a provincial statute, and it is the most generous sick-leave regime in the country: up to ten paid medical days a year that carry forward, a 27-week unpaid medical leave, five personal days, and a unjust dismissal complaint that lets a non-managerial employee with a year's service contest any dismissal and be reinstated. Here is what applies in 2026.
Canada Labour Code at a glance
| Statute | Canada Labour Code (RSC 1985, c. L-2), Part III · enforced by the Labour Program, Employment and Social Development Canada (1-800-641-4049) |
|---|---|
| Statutory sick leave | Up to 10 paid medical days a year, accrued monthly, carried forward; 27 weeks unpaid medical leave |
| Doctor's note | Only for 5 or more consecutive days, requested in writing within 15 days of return |
| Personal leave | 5 days a year, first 3 paid after 3 months |
| Notice of termination | 2 weeks after 3 months, 3 weeks after 3 years, then 1 more week per year to 8; severance after 12 months |
| Unjust dismissal | A non-managerial employee with 12 months' service can contest any dismissal within 90 days; reinstatement is a remedy |
| Final pay | Within 30 days of the entitlement arising |
| Vacation pay | 4%, 6% after 5 years, 8% after 10, always paid out |
Is paid sick leave required under the Canada Labour Code?
Yes, up to ten paid days. After 30 days of continuous employment an employee earns three days of medical leave with pay, then one more day at the start of each month after that, to a maximum of ten days in a calendar year (s. 239(1.2) to (1.4)); unused days carry forward and count toward the next year's cap. The leave is paid at the regular rate (an average over the 20 days worked before the leave for variable hours) and applies only to days the employee was scheduled to work. For a leave of at least five consecutive days the employer may require, in writing and no later than 15 days after the employee's return, a certificate from a health care practitioner (s. 239(2)). An unpaid medical leave of up to 27 weeks covers illness, injury, organ or tissue donation, medical appointments and quarantine (s. 239(1)). Dismissing, suspending, laying off, demoting or disciplining an employee because of an intended or actual medical leave is prohibited (s. 239(6)).
How sick leave works under the Canada Labour Code
| Paid medical leave | 3 days after 30 days of continuous employment, then 1 day per completed month, to 10 days per calendar year; unused days carry forward within the 10-day cap (s. 239(1.2) to (1.4)) |
|---|---|
| Rate of pay | Regular rate; for variable hours, the average of the 20 days worked before the leave (Regulations s. 17) |
| Unpaid medical leave | Up to 27 weeks for illness, injury, organ or tissue donation, medical appointments or quarantine (s. 239(1)) |
| Doctor's notes | Only for a leave of at least 5 consecutive days, requested in writing within 15 days of the return to work (s. 239(2)) |
| Personal leave | 5 days per calendar year for the employee's own illness or injury, family health, care or education, urgent matters or citizenship; first 3 paid after 3 months' service; documentation may be requested in writing within 15 days of return (s. 206.6) |
| Partial days | Not addressed by the Code or the Labour Program's interpretation; set the rule in your policy |
| Employer plans | Part III sets minimums; a more generous plan applies |
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.
Most private-sector employers are provincially regulated: see the province and territory guides.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and dismissal under the Canada Labour Code
Federally regulated employers face the highest bar in Canada on attendance dismissals, for two reasons. The first is the leave structure: a call-off that draws on the ten paid medical days, the five personal days or any other Part III leave cannot lead to dismissal, suspension, layoff, demotion or discipline (s. 239(6) and its parallels), and for anything under five consecutive days you cannot ask for a certificate at all. The second is s. 240: a non-managerial employee with a year's service can contest any dismissal as unjust, and the adjudicator will ask whether the rule was known, the discipline progressive, the disability accommodated and the record contemporaneous. A no-call no-show outside the leaves is culpable conduct that progressive discipline can address; a deemed-quit policy is where federal employers get into trouble, because a resignation the employer cannot prove is a dismissal the employee can challenge. Service Canada's own guidance treats a prolonged absence without notice as voluntary leaving for EI purposes, but that is Service Canada's call, not the employer's. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off line produces the time-stamped record an adjudicator expects.
After a no call, no show termination under the Canada Labour Code
| Does the statute define job abandonment? | No. The Code is silent, and because s. 240 lets a non-managerial employee contest any dismissal, a deemed quit carries the most risk here. At common law abandonment is a resignation the employer must prove with clear and unequivocal facts: document each attempt to reach the employee, give a written deadline, rule out a s. 239 or s. 206.6 leave, and only then record a resignation. (common law; Betts v. IBM Canada, 2015 ONSC 5298) |
|---|---|
| Final pay if you treat it as a dismissal | Wages, pay in lieu of notice, severance pay and vacation pay are due within 30 days of the day the entitlement arises. (Canada Labour Code s. 247) |
| Final pay if you treat it as a resignation | Same 30-day deadline. The Code does not require an employee to give notice of resignation. (s. 247) |
| Vacation pay at separation | Always owed: 4% of wages (6% after 5 years, 8% after 10), paid out on termination. (s. 184.01) |
| Employment Insurance | Service Canada decides. Under the Employment Insurance Act a claimant who lost the job because of their own misconduct, or who voluntarily left without just cause, is disqualified from regular benefits (s. 30(1)); just cause means the claimant had no reasonable alternative, with the circumstances listed in s. 29(c). The Record of Employment uses code E when the employee initiates the separation and code M when the employer does, for any reason other than layoff. Service Canada's Digest treats a prolonged absence without notice as voluntary leaving and neglecting to notify the employer of an absence in a timely manner as possible misconduct, while an unavoidable absence for illness that was reported is neither. For benefit periods beginning October 11, 2026 to October 9, 2027, a pilot project examines only the reason for the most recent separation. (Employment Insurance Act ss. 29(c), 30; Digest of Benefit Entitlement Principles chs. 6 and 7; SOR/2026-203) |
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 Canada Labour Code
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 under the Canada Labour Code. Our attendance policy guide walks through each section, and what a call-off hotline is explains the record it produces.
Minimum notice of termination under the Canada Labour Code
| Length of service | Minimum notice (or pay in lieu) |
|---|---|
| Under 3 months | None |
| 3 consecutive months to under 3 years | 2 weeks |
| 3 to under 4 years | 3 weeks |
| 4 to under 5 years | 4 weeks |
| 5 to under 6 years | 5 weeks |
| 6 to under 7 years | 6 weeks |
| 7 to under 8 years | 7 weeks |
| 8 years or more | 8 weeks |
Canada Labour Code s. 230(1.1), graduated since February 1, 2024, with pay in lieu, plus a written statement of benefits at least two weeks before the termination (s. 230(2.2)). Severance pay (s. 235) is owed after 12 consecutive months: the greater of two days' wages per completed year of service or five days' wages. Neither is owed where the termination is a dismissal for just cause. The larger constraint is s. 240: a non-managerial employee with 12 consecutive months of service who is not covered by a collective agreement may complain of unjust dismissal within 90 days, and an adjudicator can order reinstatement and back pay; the Supreme Court has confirmed federal employers cannot dismiss such employees without cause simply by paying notice and severance (Wilson v. Atomic Energy of Canada, 2016 SCC 29). Fifty or more terminations within four weeks need 16 weeks' notice to the Minister (s. 212).
Final pay and vacation pay
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is dismissed | Wages, pay in lieu of notice, severance pay and vacation pay within 30 days of the day the entitlement arises | Canada Labour Code ss. 230, 235, 247 |
| Employee quits or abandons the job | Same 30-day deadline; the Code requires no notice from the employee | s. 247 |
| Vacation pay | 4% of wages, 6% after 5 consecutive years, 8% after 10, paid out on termination | s. 184.01 |
| Unused paid medical days | Not paid out: they carry forward while employed and lapse on separation | s. 239 |
Part III sets minimums; a contract, policy or collective agreement that gives more applies in its place.
Leave employers must provide under the Canada Labour Code
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Medical leave | Yes — 10 days paid | Up to 10 paid days a year plus 27 weeks unpaid (s. 239) |
| Personal leave | Yes — 3 days paid | 5 days a year, first 3 paid after 3 months (s. 206.6) |
| Bereavement | Yes — 3 days paid | 10 days (first 3 paid after 3 months) from the death to 6 weeks after the funeral; 8 weeks for the death of a child (s. 210) |
| Family violence | Yes — 5 days paid | 10 days a year, first 5 paid after 3 months (s. 206.7) |
| Pregnancy loss | Yes — 3 days paid | 8 weeks for a stillbirth or 3 days otherwise, first 3 days paid (since December 2025) |
| Compassionate care | Yes — unpaid | 28 weeks in 52 (s. 206.3) |
| Critical illness | Yes — unpaid | 37 weeks (child) or 17 weeks (adult) (s. 206.4) |
| Court or jury duty | Yes — unpaid | As required |
| Reservist | Yes — unpaid | Up to 24 months in 60 after 3 months' service |
| Traditional Aboriginal practices | Yes — unpaid | 5 days a year |
| Voting (federal elections) | Yes — paid | 3 consecutive hours while polls are open, for every employer in Canada (Canada Elections Act s. 132) |
| Vacation | Yes | 2 weeks (3 after 5 years, 4 after 10), pay 4% / 6% / 8% |
The death or disappearance of a child leave (up to 156 weeks) also exists. The requirement to have a disconnecting-from-work policy is enacted but was not yet in force as of October 2026.
The Canada Labour Code 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.