AbsentEase
Newfoundland and Labrador sick leave law & call-off rules
Newfoundland and Labrador gives every employee a single bank of seven unpaid sick or family responsibility days a year after thirty days, added a 27-week long-term illness leave in December 2024, and at the same time deleted the employer's statutory right to demand a sick note. It is also one of the few provinces where both sides owe notice of termination on the same scale, and where jury duty is paid. Here is what applies in 2026.
Newfoundland and Labrador at a glance
| Statute | Labour Standards Act (RSNL 1990, c. L-2) · enforced by the Labour Standards Division, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador (1-877-563-1063) |
|---|---|
| Statutory sick leave | 7 unpaid sick or family responsibility days a year, one bank, after 30 days |
| Doctor's note | No statutory right to require one for the 7-day leave since December 2024 |
| Long-term illness | 27 weeks unpaid in 52, after 30 days, with a certificate |
| Notice of termination | 1 to 6 weeks by length of service, owed by the employer and the employee alike |
| Final pay | Within 1 week of termination, vacation pay included |
| Vacation pay | 4%, or 6% after 15 years, always paid out |
| Jury duty | Paid: the employer must continue wages and benefits (Jury Act, 1991, s. 42) |
Is paid sick leave required in Newfoundland and Labrador?
No paid days; seven unpaid ones, shared with family leave. After 30 continuous days an employee may take up to seven days of unpaid sick leave or family responsibility leave in a year, from one combined bank (s. 43.11(1)). The former right to require a medical certificate after three consecutive sick days was repealed on December 4, 2024 (s. 43.11(2)); the government's release says the change does not stop an employer from setting its own reasonable sick-leave requirements. For three or more consecutive days of family responsibility leave you may ask for a written statement of the nature of the responsibility (s. 43.11(3)). Unused days expire at the end of the year (s. 43.11(4)). A more generous contract or policy prevails (ss. 3 and 4).
How sick leave works in Newfoundland and Labrador
| Sick or family responsibility leave | 7 unpaid days a year, one combined bank, after 30 continuous days (s. 43.11(1)) |
|---|---|
| Doctor's notes | The Act no longer gives a right to one for the 7-day leave (s. 43.11(2) repealed December 2024); a reasonable policy may still ask, subject to human-rights limits. The 27-week leave requires a practitioner's certificate |
| Family responsibility evidence | For 3 or more consecutive days, a written statement of the nature of the responsibility (s. 43.11(3)) |
| Carry-over | None: unused days expire at year end (s. 43.11(4)) |
| Long-term illness, injury or organ donation | Up to 27 weeks unpaid in a 52-week period after 30 continuous days, with a practitioner's certificate and 2 weeks' written notice where possible; up to 104 weeks where a crime caused the injury; no dismissal for taking it (ss. 43.43 to 43.45, in force December 4, 2024) |
| Partial days | The Act is silent; set the rule in your policy |
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 Newfoundland and Labrador's statute.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and dismissal in Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador's seven-day bank is the line an attendance policy has to respect: a call-off that draws on it is statutory leave, and although s. 43.11 carries no dismissal clause of its own, firing or disciplining for taking it invites a complaint, a human-rights application if illness is behind it, and a wrongful-dismissal claim. Because the Act no longer lets you demand a sick note for those days, the policy itself has to do the work: a clear reporting rule, a reasonable (and consistently applied) evidence request for longer absences, and a time-stamped log of every call-off. A no-call no-show outside the protected days is culpable conduct, and serious misconduct, wilful refusal or neglect of duty (s. 53(1)(a)) is the standard that removes the notice obligation at the end of progressive discipline. One wrinkle: the employee owes you notice too (s. 52), so a walk-out is itself a breach, but your remedy is a consented deduction or a deposit with the Director, never a withheld paycheque. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off line keeps the record the Labour Standards Division will ask for.
After a no call, no show termination in Newfoundland and Labrador
| 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 wages, pay in lieu of notice and vacation pay are due within one week of the termination. (Labour Standards Act ss. 33(2), 53) |
| Final pay if you treat it as a resignation | Same one-week deadline. The employee owed you written notice on the same scale (ss. 52, 55); you may deduct one week's wages for missing notice only with their consent, otherwise deposit the amount with the Director. (ss. 33(2), 54(2)) |
| Vacation pay at separation | Always owed: 4% of wages (6% after 15 years), paid with the final wages. (ss. 8, 9, 12(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 Newfoundland and Labrador
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 Newfoundland and Labrador. 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 Newfoundland and Labrador
| Length of service | Minimum notice (or pay in lieu) |
|---|---|
| Under 3 months | None |
| 3 months to under 2 years | 1 week |
| 2 to under 5 years | 2 weeks |
| 5 to under 10 years | 3 weeks |
| 10 to under 15 years | 4 weeks |
| 15 years or more | 6 weeks |
Labour Standards Act ss. 52 and 55(1): the same written notice is owed by an employee who quits. The employer owes none where the employee is dismissed for serious misconduct, wilful refusal to obey a lawful instruction or neglect of duty (s. 53(1)(a)), and may pay in lieu instead (s. 53(1)(b)). Fifty or more terminations within four weeks need 8, 12 or 16 weeks' notice and a notice to the Minister (s. 57). 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 wages, pay in lieu of notice and vacation pay within 1 week of the termination | Labour Standards Act ss. 12(2), 33(2), 53 |
| Employee quits or abandons the job | Same 1-week deadline. The employee owed notice on the s. 55 scale; a deduction for notice not given needs the employee's consent, otherwise the amount is deposited with the Director to decide | ss. 33(2), 52, 54(2) |
| Vacation pay | 4% of wages (6% after 15 years), paid with the final wages | ss. 8, 9, 12(2) |
| Unused statutory sick days | Not paid out: the days are unpaid leave and expire at year end | s. 43.11(4) |
A contract, policy or collective agreement that gives more than the Act prevails (ss. 3 and 4).
Leave employers must provide in Newfoundland and Labrador
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sick or family responsibility leave | Yes — unpaid | 7 days a year, one bank, after 30 days (s. 43.11) |
| Long-term illness, injury or organ donation | Yes — unpaid | 27 weeks in 52 after 30 days (ss. 43.43 to 43.45) |
| Bereavement | Yes — partly paid | After 30 days: 1 paid + 2 unpaid days (otherwise 2 unpaid) (s. 43.10) |
| Family violence | Yes — partly paid | After 30 days: 3 paid + 7 unpaid days a year, reasonable verification, expires at year end (s. 43.34) |
| Compassionate care | Yes — unpaid | 28 weeks (s. 43.14) |
| Critical illness | Yes — unpaid | 37 weeks (child) or 17 weeks (adult) (s. 43.29) |
| Jury duty | Yes — paid | Wages and benefits continue during jury service; fine up to $1,000 for not doing so (Jury Act, 1991, s. 42) |
| Reservist | Yes — unpaid | After 3 months, up to 24 months in 60 (s. 43.18) |
| Vacation | Yes | 2 weeks (3 after 15 years), pay 4% / 6% |
A communicable-disease emergency leave (s. 43.39) also exists and bars asking for a medical certificate. Voting time comes from the Elections Act, 1991 rather than the Labour Standards Act.
The Newfoundland and Labrador 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.