AbsentEase
Nunavut sick leave law & call-off rules
Nunavut is the one Canadian jurisdiction with no statutory sick leave at all: no paid days, no unpaid days, and no bereavement or family responsibility leave in the Labour Standards Act. That makes your written policy the rule that applies, with the human-rights duty to accommodate as the ceiling on it, and it makes the termination provisions (notice after ninety days, termination pay that includes benefits, final pay within ten days) the part of the Act most attendance decisions touch. Here is what applies in 2026.
Nunavut at a glance
| Statute | Labour Standards Act (C.S.Nu. c. L-10) · enforced by the Labour Standards Compliance Office, Nunavut Department of Justice (1-877-806-8402) |
|---|---|
| Statutory sick leave | None: no paid or unpaid sick days, family days or bereavement days in the Act |
| Doctor's note | Not addressed by the Act; your policy, within human-rights limits |
| Notice of termination | 2 weeks after 90 days, plus 1 week per year of service beyond 3, to 8 weeks; termination pay includes benefits |
| Final pay | Within 10 days of termination |
| Vacation pay | 4% for the first 5 years, 6% after, paid without delay |
| Employee notice to quit | None required by the Act |
| Compassionate leave | 8 weeks unpaid for a family member at risk of death |
Is paid sick leave required in Nunavut?
No. The Labour Standards Act contains no sick leave, no family responsibility leave and no bereavement leave; the leaves it does provide are pregnancy and parental leave, an eight-week compassionate leave for a family member at significant risk of death (s. 39.1), reservist leave (s. 39.10) and public emergency leave (s. 39.14). A family abuse leave was enacted in 2020 (Part V.4), but the amending Act leaves those sections to come into force on a day fixed by order of the Commissioner, no such order has been published, and the official consolidation marks them not in force; the Labour Standards Compliance Office can confirm the current position. Whatever your contract or policy gives stands (s. 3(1)), and the Nunavut Human Rights Act's duty to accommodate a disability still applies to every illness-related absence.
How sick leave works in Nunavut
| Sick leave | None in the Act; your written policy and contract govern |
|---|---|
| Family responsibility and bereavement | None in the Act |
| Compassionate leave | 8 weeks unpaid to care for a family member at significant risk of death within 26 weeks, with a practitioner's certificate (s. 39.1) |
| Family abuse leave | Enacted in 2020 (ss. 39.17 to 39.24: 5 unpaid days and 15 unpaid weeks after a month, 5 paid days after 3 months) but awaiting a commencement order of the Commissioner, which has not been published; the official consolidation marks the sections not in force. Check with the Labour Standards Compliance Office |
| Doctor's notes | The Act is silent; a reasonable, consistently applied policy may ask, within human-rights limits |
| Longer illness | No statutory leave; the duty to accommodate a disability to the point of undue hardship governs |
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 Nunavut's statute.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and dismissal in Nunavut
With no statutory sick days to carve out, Nunavut employers have the widest room in Canada to run an attendance policy, and the narrowest margin for error on the two rules that remain. The first is the Nunavut Human Rights Act: an absence connected to a disability, which includes mental illness and addiction, is managed through accommodation, not points, and a dismissal connected to it is discriminatory however the policy reads. The second is just cause: the Act removes notice and termination pay only for culpable conduct, and a single no-call no-show rarely clears that bar on its own. Progressive discipline under a written rule, applied the same way to everyone and backed by a time-stamped record of what was and was not reported, is what makes the eventual dismissal hold; otherwise it is a termination owing notice and benefits-inclusive termination pay within ten days. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off line produces that record automatically.
After a no call, no show termination in Nunavut
| 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. (Labour Standards Act ss. 14.03(4), 50(3)) |
| 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. 50(3)) |
| Vacation pay at separation | Always owed: 4% of wages for the first 5 years, 6% after, paid without delay when employment ends. (ss. 15, 16, 19) |
| 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 Nunavut
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 Nunavut. 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 Nunavut
| 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 |
Labour Standards Act s. 14.03(1) and (2): two weeks for less than three years, plus one week for each additional year, to a maximum of eight. Termination pay equals the wages and benefits for the notice period (s. 14.03(4)). No notice is owed where employment is terminated for just cause (s. 14.04(c), undefined), to employees in construction, seasonal work under 180 days a year, a definite term of a year or less, or fewer than 25 hours a week (Notice of Termination Exemption Regulations), or where the employee fails to return within 7 days of a written recall. Twenty-five or more terminations within four weeks need 4 to 16 weeks' notice to the Labour Standards Officer (s. 14.07). 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 | Labour Standards Act ss. 14.03(4), 50(3) |
| 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. 50(3) |
| Vacation pay | 4% of wages for the first 5 years, 6% after, paid without delay when employment ends | ss. 15, 16, 19 |
| Unused policy sick days | Whatever your written policy says; the Act has none | s. 3(1) |
A temporary layoff may not exceed 45 days in any 60 and needs written notice, or it is a termination (ss. 14.01, 14.05).
Leave employers must provide in Nunavut
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sick leave | No | Whatever your written policy provides; the duty to accommodate still applies |
| Bereavement | No | Policy-driven |
| Family responsibility | No | Policy-driven |
| Compassionate leave | Yes — unpaid | 8 weeks, family member at significant risk of death, certificate (s. 39.1) |
| Family abuse | Enacted, awaiting proclamation | 5 unpaid days + 15 unpaid weeks, 5 paid days after 3 months, once the Commissioner's order is made (ss. 39.17 to 39.24) |
| Reservist | Yes — unpaid | After 6 months; a certificate may be required (ss. 39.10 to 39.12) |
| Public emergency | Yes — unpaid | As the regulations provide (s. 39.14) |
| Jury or witness duty | Not in the Act | Follow the Jury Act and treat it as excused |
| Vacation | Yes | 2 weeks (3 after 5 years), pay 4% / 6% |
The Act does not cover the territorial public service (s. 2(5)). Voting time comes from the Nunavut Elections Act rather than the Labour Standards Act.
The Nunavut 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.