AbsentEase
Nova Scotia sick leave law & call-off rules
Nova Scotia rewrote its sick-leave rules for 2025: every employee now gets five unpaid, job-protected sick days a year plus three family days, a 27-week serious-illness leave, and one of the country's tightest limits on asking for a doctor's note. Attendance discipline is still allowed; it has to be built around those leaves, and after ten years of service a dismissal needs just cause. Here is what applies in 2026.
Nova Scotia at a glance
| Statute | Labour Standards Code (RSNS 1989, c. 246) · enforced by the Labour Standards Division, Nova Scotia Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration (1-888-315-0110) |
|---|---|
| Statutory sick leave | 5 unpaid days for the employee's own illness + 3 unpaid family or appointment days a year, no waiting period |
| Doctor's note | Only after more than 5 consecutive working days, or after 2 earlier short absences in 12 months |
| Long-term illness | 27 weeks unpaid in 52, after 3 months' service |
| Notice of termination | 1 to 8 weeks by length of service; after 10 years, dismissal needs just cause |
| Final pay | Wages within 5 working days after the pay period ends; vacation pay within 10 days of termination |
| Vacation pay | 4%, or 6% after more than 8 years, always paid out |
| Employee notice to quit | 1 week (under 2 years) or 2 weeks (2+ years) after 3 months' service |
Is paid sick leave required in Nova Scotia?
No paid days, but five unpaid ones. Since January 1, 2025 the Labour Standards Code gives every employee up to five days of unpaid leave a year for their own sickness or injury (s. 60G(1)) and up to three more unpaid days for a sick child, parent or family member or for medical and dental appointments (s. 60G(2)). There is no length-of-service requirement, the employee only has to tell you as soon as possible, and discharging, suspending or disciplining someone for taking the leave is a reprisal (s. 30(1)). A more generous policy, contract or collective agreement prevails (s. 6).
How sick leave works in Nova Scotia
| Own illness or injury | Up to 5 unpaid days a year (s. 60G(1)); no waiting period |
|---|---|
| Family illness and appointments | Up to 3 unpaid days a year, counted separately (s. 60G(2)) |
| Serious illness or injury | Up to 27 weeks unpaid in any 52 weeks after 3 months' service, taken in periods of at least a week; you may ask for supporting information on the Director's form (ss. 60F to 60FC) |
| Doctor's notes | Only when the employee has missed more than 5 consecutive working days, or has already had 2 or more non-consecutive absences of 5 days or fewer in the past 12 months; any regulated health professional treating the employee may sign (Medical Certificates for Employee Absence Act, in force July 1, 2023) |
| Carry-over and partial days | The Code is silent for s. 60G leave; write your own rule and apply it consistently (only the domestic-violence leave says a part day counts as a full day) |
| 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 Nova Scotia's statute.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and dismissal in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia lets you discipline and dismiss for attendance, but the protected days come first: a call-off that is one of the employee's five sick days or three family days cannot earn a point or a warning (s. 30(1)), and you cannot demand a note for it until the absence has run past five consecutive working days. Outside those days a no-call no-show is culpable conduct that progressive discipline can address, and the Code's wilful misconduct or neglect of duty standard, applied to a known rule and a clean record, is what removes the notice obligation. What Labour Standards and the courts look at is the record: the written call-off rule, every attempt you made to reach the employee, and the time-stamped history of what was and was not reported, which is what a call-off hotline or text-based call-off line exists to produce. Remember the ten-year rule: a long-service employee's attendance dismissal must meet the just-cause standard, not just the policy.
After a no call, no show termination in Nova Scotia
| 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 | Wages are due within 5 working days after the end of the pay period in which employment ended, with pay in lieu of any notice owed. (Labour Standards Code ss. 72(4), 79(1)) |
| Final pay if you treat it as a resignation | Same deadline. The employee owed you 1 or 2 weeks' notice (s. 73); you may complain to Labour Standards about a loss, but you may not deduct it yourself. (ss. 73, 79(1)) |
| Vacation pay at separation | Always owed: 4% of wages (6% after more than 8 years), paid within 10 days of the day employment ends. (ss. 32 to 34) |
| 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 Nova Scotia
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 Nova Scotia. 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 Nova Scotia
| 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 | 4 weeks |
| 10 years or more | 8 weeks, and only for just cause (s. 71) |
Labour Standards Code s. 72(1) and (4). No notice is owed to an employee guilty of wilful misconduct or disobedience or neglect of duty that has not been condoned by the employer, and an employee with ten or more years of service cannot be discharged or suspended without just cause at all (s. 71). Ten or more terminations within four weeks need 8, 12 or 16 weeks' notice and a notice to the Minister (s. 72(2)). 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 | Wages within 5 working days after the end of the pay period, plus pay in lieu of any notice owed, at the regular rate | Labour Standards Code ss. 72(4), 79(1) |
| Employee quits or abandons the job | Same deadline. The employee owed 1 or 2 weeks' notice after 3 months; an employer with a proven loss can complain to Labour Standards, but cannot withhold pay on its own | ss. 73, 79(1) |
| Vacation pay | 4% of wages, 6% after more than 8 years, paid within 10 days of the day employment ends | ss. 32 to 34 |
| Unused statutory sick days | Not paid out: the days are unpaid leave, not a bank | s. 60G |
A policy or contract that promises more than the Code is enforceable as the greater benefit (s. 6).
Leave employers must provide in Nova Scotia
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sick leave | Yes — unpaid | 5 days own illness + 3 family days a year (s. 60G) |
| Serious illness or injury | Yes — unpaid | 27 weeks in 52 after 3 months (ss. 60F to 60FC) |
| Bereavement | Yes — unpaid | Up to 5 consecutive working days (s. 60A) |
| Domestic violence | Yes — partly paid | After 3 months: 10 days (5 paid since April 1, 2025) plus up to 16 continuous weeks a year (s. 60Z) |
| Compassionate care | Yes — unpaid | 28 weeks for a family member at risk of death (s. 60E) |
| Critically ill child or adult | Yes — unpaid | 37 weeks (child, s. 60L) or 16 weeks (adult, s. 60SB) |
| Jury or witness duty | Yes — unpaid | Court leave (s. 60B) |
| Reservist | Yes — unpaid | After 3 months, up to 24 months in 60 (s. 60H) |
| Vacation | Yes | 2 weeks (3 after 8 years), pay 4% / 6% |
Citizenship-ceremony leave (1 day), emergency leave and the crime-related child death or disappearance leaves also exist. Voting time comes from the Elections Act rather than the Code.
The Nova Scotia 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.