AbsentEase
Northwest Territories sick leave law & call-off rules
The Northwest Territories gives every employee five unpaid, job-protected sick days a year after thirty days, lets you ask for a medical certificate only once an absence passes three consecutive days, and counts benefits as well as wages in termination pay. There is no statutory family responsibility leave and no long-term illness leave, so longer absences are governed by the duty to accommodate. Here is what applies in 2026.
Northwest Territories at a glance
| Statute | Employment Standards Act (SNWT 2007, c. 13) · enforced by the Employment Standards Office, NWT Department of Education, Culture and Employment (1-888-700-5707) |
|---|---|
| Statutory sick leave | 5 unpaid days per 12 months after 30 days' employment |
| Doctor's note | Only when the absence exceeds 3 consecutive days |
| Notice of termination | 2 weeks after 90 days, plus 1 week per year of service beyond 2, to 8 weeks; termination pay includes benefits |
| Final pay | Within 10 days of termination |
| Vacation pay | 4% for the first 5 years, 6% from the sixth, paid without delay |
| Employee notice to quit | None required by the Act |
| Family violence leave | 10 days a year (first 5 paid) plus 15 unpaid weeks |
Is paid sick leave required in Northwest Territories?
No paid days; five unpaid ones after 30 days. An employee who has been employed at least 30 days and is incapable of working because of illness or injury is entitled to at least five days of unpaid sick leave in each twelve-month period (ss. 29(1) and (2)), on a request made at the earliest reasonable opportunity that states the expected duration. If the leave exceeds three consecutive days the employer may request a medical certificate (s. 29(3)); a nurse practitioner may sign it, and in a community with no physician a registered nurse may (s. 33). Terminating or changing the conditions of employment because an employee requested, is on or has taken sick leave is prohibited (s. 36(1)). Better benefits in a contract or policy stand (s. 4(1)).
How sick leave works in Northwest Territories
| Sick leave | At least 5 unpaid days per 12 months after 30 days' employment (s. 29) |
|---|---|
| Doctor's notes | Only when the leave exceeds 3 consecutive days (s. 29(3)); a nurse practitioner may sign, and a registered nurse where there is no physician (s. 33) |
| Carry-over and partial days | The Act is silent; set the rule in your policy |
| Family responsibility | No statutory leave; family caregiver leave (s. 30.1) covers a critically ill family member only |
| Longer illness | No statutory long-term leave; the human-rights duty to accommodate a disability governs |
| 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 Northwest Territories's statute.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and dismissal in Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories leaves attendance discipline to your written policy inside two limits. First, the five sick days: a call-off that uses one cannot change the employee's conditions or end their employment (s. 36(1)), and you cannot ask for a certificate until the absence runs past three consecutive days. Second, because the Act has no long-term illness leave, anything longer is a human-rights question before it is an attendance question: ask about limitations and expected return, consider accommodation, and document it. A no-call no-show with no protected reason behind it is culpable conduct that progressive discipline can address; the Act does not define just cause, so the common-law standard (a known rule, warnings, proportionate steps, a documented record) decides whether the final dismissal owes notice and termination pay. Keep that record contemporaneous with a call-off hotline or text-based call-off line; the Employment Standards Office and an adjudicator will ask for it.
After a no call, no show termination in Northwest Territories
| 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, including termination pay (wages and benefits for the notice period), are due within 10 days of the termination. (Employment Standards Act ss. 13(3), 39) |
| Final pay if you treat it as a resignation | Same 10-day deadline. The Act does not require an employee to give notice, so a walk-out leaves nothing to recover. (s. 13(3)) |
| Vacation pay at separation | Always owed: 4% of wages for the first 5 years, 6% from the sixth, paid without delay when employment ends. (s. 25) |
| 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 Northwest Territories
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 Northwest Territories. 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 Northwest Territories
| Length of service | Minimum notice (or pay in lieu) |
|---|---|
| Under 90 days | None |
| 90 days 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 |
Employment Standards Act ss. 37 and 38(2): two weeks, plus one additional week for each year of employment beyond two, to a maximum of eight. Termination pay equals the wages and benefits the employee would have earned over the notice period (s. 39), and notice may not overlap vacation (s. 38(3)). No notice is owed where employment is terminated for just cause (s. 37(2)(c), undefined), for some exempted occupations, or where the employee fails to return within 7 days of a written recall from layoff. Twenty-five or more terminations within four weeks need 4 to 16 weeks' notice to the Employment Standards Officer (s. 41). 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, including termination pay (wages and benefits for the notice period), within 10 days of the termination | Employment Standards Act ss. 13(3), 39 |
| Employee quits or abandons the job | Same 10-day deadline; the Act requires no notice from the employee, so there is nothing to recover | s. 13(3) |
| Vacation pay | 4% of wages for the first 5 years, 6% from the sixth year, paid without delay when employment ends | s. 25 |
| Unused statutory sick days | Not paid out: the days are unpaid leave, not a bank | s. 29 |
The Act sets minimums; a contract or policy that gives more applies (s. 4(1)). A temporary layoff may not exceed 45 days in any 60 without becoming a termination, and needs written notice (s. 42).
Leave employers must provide in Northwest Territories
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sick leave | Yes — unpaid | 5 days per 12 months after 30 days (s. 29) |
| Bereavement | Yes — unpaid | 3 days when the funeral is in the employee's community, 7 days when it is outside (s. 31) |
| Family violence | Yes — partly paid | 10 days per calendar year (first 5 paid after 3 months) plus 15 unpaid weeks; reasonable verification (s. 30.2) |
| Compassionate care | Yes — unpaid | 27 weeks (s. 30) |
| Family caregiver | Yes — unpaid | 17 weeks (adult) or 37 weeks (child) for critical illness (s. 30.1) |
| Jury or witness duty | Yes — unpaid | Court leave (s. 32) |
| Reservist | Yes — unpaid | After 6 months (s. 32.1) |
| Vacation | Yes | 2 weeks (3 from the sixth year), pay 4% / 6% |
Emergency leave (s. 30.3) also exists. Voting time comes from the Elections and Plebiscites Act rather than the Employment Standards Act.
The Northwest Territories 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.