AbsentEase
New Brunswick sick leave law & call-off rules
New Brunswick keeps sick leave simple and unpaid: five job-protected sick days a year after ninety days' service, three family responsibility days, and, since June 2026, a 27-week long-term illness leave. The rule that catches employers is not the leave but the dismissal paperwork: a dismissal for cause has to be put in writing, with reasons, at the time, or it is treated as a termination without cause. Here is what applies in 2026.
New Brunswick at a glance
| Statute | Employment Standards Act (SNB 1982, c. E-7.2) · enforced by the Employment Standards Branch, New Brunswick Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour (1-888-452-2687) |
|---|---|
| Statutory sick leave | 5 unpaid days per 12 months after 90 days' service, plus 3 family responsibility days |
| Doctor's note | Only for an absence of 4 or more consecutive days |
| Long-term illness | 27 weeks unpaid in 52, after 90 days (new in 2026) |
| Notice of termination | 2 weeks after 6 months, 4 weeks after 5 years; a dismissal for cause must be in writing with reasons |
| Final pay | By the regular pay date and no later than 21 days after the last day worked |
| Vacation pay | 4%, or 6% after 8 years, paid with the final pay |
| Employee notice to quit | None required by the Act |
Is paid sick leave required in New Brunswick?
No paid days; five unpaid ones after 90 days. An employee employed for more than 90 days may take up to five days of unpaid sick leave in any twelve months (s. 44.021(1)), and you may require a medical certificate only when the absence runs four or more consecutive days (s. 44.021(2)). A separate three days of unpaid family responsibility leave covers a family member's health, care or education (s. 44.022). An employer may not suspend, lay off, dismiss or terminate an employee during a leave or for reasons arising from it (s. 44.04), and the Act's minimums apply despite any contrary agreement (s. 4).
How sick leave works in New Brunswick
| Own illness or injury | Up to 5 unpaid days per 12 months, after more than 90 days' employment (s. 44.021) |
|---|---|
| Family responsibility | Up to 3 unpaid days per 12 months, counted separately (s. 44.022) |
| Long-term illness or injury | Up to 27 weeks unpaid in any 52 weeks after 90 continuous days, in periods of at least a week; a certificate from a medical practitioner, nurse practitioner or midwife may be required; the employee returns to the same or an equivalent job (s. 44.029, in force June 2026) |
| Doctor's notes | Allowed for the 5-day leave only when the absence is 4 or more consecutive days (s. 44.021(2)); allowed at any time for the 27-week leave |
| Carry-over and partial days | The Act is silent; set the rule in your policy |
| Pay | Unpaid, unless your contract, policy or collective agreement provides more |
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 New Brunswick's statute.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and dismissal in New Brunswick
New Brunswick leaves attendance discipline to your written policy, with three statutory guard-rails. First, a call-off that uses one of the five sick days or three family days is protected: an employee cannot be suspended, laid off or dismissed for it (s. 44.04), and you cannot ask for a note unless the absence reaches four consecutive days. Second, the human-rights duty to accommodate means an absence tied to a disability is managed, not pointed. Third, if you dismiss for cause, say so in writing with the reasons on the day, or s. 30(2) converts it into a without-cause termination that owes notice. A no-call no-show that is none of those things is ordinary culpable misconduct, and progressive discipline backed by a time-stamped record is what makes the eventual dismissal hold up at the Employment Standards Branch or in court. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off line produces that record automatically.
After a no call, no show termination in New Brunswick
| Does the statute define job abandonment? | No. The statute does not define job abandonment or a consecutive-days threshold. At common law abandonment is a resignation, and the test is objective: would a reasonable person, looking at what the employee said and did, conclude they clearly and unequivocally intended to give up the job? An employer that assumed a quit after silence, without first telling the employee that silence would be treated as a resignation, has lost on that point (Hettrick v. Triple F Paving, 2021 ONSC 208). (common law; Betts v. IBM Canada, 2015 ONSC 5298) |
|---|---|
| Final pay if you treat it as a dismissal | All pay owing, including any pay in lieu of notice, is due by the regular pay date and no later than 21 days after the last day worked. Put the reasons for a dismissal for cause in writing at the time. (Employment Standards Act ss. 30(2), 34, 37) |
| Final pay if you treat it as a resignation | Same deadline. New Brunswick does not require an employee to give notice, so a walk-out leaves nothing to recover. (s. 37) |
| Vacation pay at separation | Always owed: 4% of wages (6% after 8 years), paid with the final pay. (ss. 24 to 26) |
| 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 New Brunswick
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 New Brunswick. 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 New Brunswick
| Length of service | Minimum notice (or pay in lieu) |
|---|---|
| Under 6 months | None |
| 6 months to under 5 years | 2 weeks |
| 5 years or more | 4 weeks |
Employment Standards Act s. 30(1), with pay in lieu under s. 34. Notice is not owed where cause for dismissal exists, but a dismissal for cause must be in writing and state the reasons, or it is treated as a termination without cause (s. 30(2)). More than ten employees who make up at least a quarter of the workforce, within four weeks, means six weeks' notice to the Minister, the employees and any union (s. 32). The common law usually requires more notice than the statute; the Act is the floor.
Final pay and vacation pay
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is dismissed | All pay owing, including pay in lieu of notice, by the regular pay date and no later than 21 days after the last day worked | Employment Standards Act ss. 34, 37 |
| Employee quits or abandons the job | Same deadline; the Act does not require the employee to give notice, so there is nothing to recover | s. 37 |
| Vacation pay | 4% of wages (6% after 8 years), paid with the final pay | ss. 24 to 26 |
| Unused statutory sick days | Not paid out: the days are unpaid leave, not a bank | s. 44.021 |
The Act applies despite any agreement to the contrary; a collective agreement displaces a provision only where it expressly says a benefit was agreed in its place (s. 4).
Leave employers must provide in New Brunswick
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sick leave | Yes — unpaid | 5 days per 12 months after 90 days (s. 44.021) |
| Family responsibility | Yes — unpaid | 3 days per 12 months (s. 44.022) |
| Long-term illness or injury | Yes — unpaid | 27 weeks in 52 after 90 days (s. 44.029) |
| Bereavement | Yes — unpaid | Up to 5 consecutive calendar days, starting no later than the funeral (s. 44.03) |
| Domestic, intimate-partner or sexual violence | Yes — partly paid | After 90 days: 10 days (first 5 paid) plus up to 16 continuous weeks a year (s. 44.027, Reg. 2018-81) |
| Compassionate care | Yes — unpaid | 28 weeks (s. 44.024) |
| Critically ill child or adult | Yes — unpaid | 37 weeks (child) or 16 weeks (adult) (ss. 44.025, 44.0251) |
| Jury or witness duty | Yes — unpaid | Court leave (s. 44.023) |
| Reservist | Yes — unpaid | After 3 months, up to 24 months in 60 (s. 44.031) |
| Vacation | Yes | 2 weeks (3 after 8 years), pay 4% / 6% |
Emergency leave (s. 44.028) and the death-or-disappearance-of-a-child leave (s. 44.026) also exist. Voting time comes from the Elections Act rather than the Employment Standards Act.
The New Brunswick 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.