AbsentEase
Ontario sick leave law & call-off rules
Ontario gives every employee three unpaid, job-protected sick days a year, and since October 2024 an employer may not require a doctor's note for them. Around that sit three family responsibility days, two bereavement days, a 27-week long-term illness leave added in 2025, and a reprisal rule that makes penalizing any of them an offence. Attendance discipline is still allowed; it has to be built around those leaves. Here is what applies in 2026.
Ontario at a glance
| Statute | Employment Standards Act, 2000 (SO 2000, c. 41) · enforced by the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (Employment Standards Information Centre 1-800-531-5551) |
|---|---|
| Statutory sick leave | 3 unpaid days per calendar year after 2 weeks, plus 3 family responsibility days and 2 bereavement days |
| Doctor's note | A certificate from a physician, nurse or psychologist may not be required for the 3 sick days |
| Long-term illness | 27 weeks unpaid in 52, after 13 weeks, with a certificate |
| Notice of termination | 1 to 8 weeks by length of service after 3 months; severance pay for some employers after 5 years |
| Final pay | The later of 7 days after employment ends or the next regular pay day |
| Vacation pay | 4%, or 6% after 5 years, always paid out |
| Employee notice to quit | None required by the ESA |
Is paid sick leave required in Ontario?
No paid days, but three unpaid ones. After two consecutive weeks of employment, every employee is entitled to three days of unpaid sick leave per calendar year for personal illness, injury or a medical emergency (ESA s. 50). The days are not pro-rated and do not carry over, and an employer may count a part day taken as a full day. You may ask for evidence reasonable in the circumstances (s. 50(6)), but since October 28, 2024 you may not require a certificate from a qualified health practitioner, meaning a physician, registered nurse or psychologist (s. 50(6.1)). Penalizing, intimidating, suspending or dismissing an employee for taking, planning to take or being eligible for an ESA leave is a reprisal (s. 74), and an employment standards officer can order reinstatement and compensation. If your contract gives paid sick days for the same reasons, using them also uses up the ESA days (s. 5(2)).
How sick leave works in Ontario
| Sick leave | 3 unpaid days per calendar year after 2 consecutive weeks; not pro-rated, no carry-over (s. 50) |
|---|---|
| Family responsibility leave | 3 unpaid days per calendar year for a relative's illness, injury, medical emergency or urgent matter; no medical note about the relative may be required (s. 50.0.1) |
| Bereavement leave | 2 unpaid days per calendar year (s. 50.0.2) |
| Doctor's notes | Evidence reasonable in the circumstances may be requested, but not a certificate from a physician, registered nurse or psychologist (s. 50(6.1), since October 28, 2024); medical information may still be sought for accommodation or return to work |
| Partial days | The employer may count a part day as a full day of leave; it is not required to |
| Long-term illness leave | Up to 27 weeks in 52 after 13 consecutive weeks, for a serious medical condition certified by a qualified health practitioner (s. 49.8, in force June 19, 2025) |
| Pay | Unpaid, unless your contract, policy or collective agreement says otherwise; a contract day used for the same reason counts against the ESA days (s. 5(2)) |
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 Ontario's statute.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and dismissal in Ontario
Ontario lets you discipline and dismiss for attendance, but the ESA leaves come first and the reprisal rule has teeth: a call-off that is one of the employee's three sick days, three family responsibility days or two bereavement days cannot earn a point, a warning or a lost shift (s. 74), and you cannot demand a doctor's note for it. Beyond those days, a no-call no-show is culpable conduct that progressive discipline can address; whether the eventual dismissal owes termination pay turns on the regulation's wilful misconduct, disobedience or wilful neglect of duty that is not trivial and has not been condoned, a standard that absenteeism alone rarely meets without a known rule, warnings and consistent enforcement. The Human Rights Code runs alongside: the Ontario Human Rights Commission says attendance programs with arbitrarily selected cut-offs are open to challenge, and an absence tied to a disability is accommodated, not pointed. What the Ministry, a human rights tribunal or a court looks at is the record, which is what a call-off hotline or text-based call-off line exists to produce.
After a no call, no show termination in Ontario
| Does the statute define job abandonment? | No. The ESA is silent, and Ontario's courts set the test: would a reasonable person, looking objectively at what the employee said and did, conclude they clearly and unequivocally intended to no longer be bound by the employment contract? The threshold is high; an employer that treated silence as a quit without first saying in writing that silence would be treated that way lost (Hettrick v. Triple F Paving, 2021 ONSC 208). A wrong call is a termination that owes ESA termination pay and invites a wrongful-dismissal claim. (Betts v. IBM Canada, 2015 ONSC 5298, aff'd 2016 ONSC 2496 (Div. Ct.)) |
|---|---|
| Final pay if you treat it as a dismissal | All wages, including termination pay and vacation pay, are due by the later of 7 days after employment ends or the next regular pay day. (ESA ss. 11(5), 61) |
| Final pay if you treat it as a resignation | Same deadline. The ESA does not require an employee to give notice of resignation, so a walk-out leaves nothing to recover. (s. 11(5)) |
| Vacation pay at separation | Always owed: 4% of wages (6% after 5 years), paid by the same deadline. (ss. 35.2, 38) |
| 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 Ontario
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 Ontario. 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 Ontario
| Length of service | Minimum notice (or pay in lieu) |
|---|---|
| Under 3 months | None |
| 3 months to under 1 year | 1 week |
| 1 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 |
ESA ss. 54 to 57, with termination pay in lieu. No notice is owed to an employee guilty of wilful misconduct, disobedience or wilful neglect of duty that is not trivial and has not been condoned by the employer (O. Reg. 288/01, s. 2(1) para. 3); careless or unintentional conduct is not wilful, and a contract frustrated by the employee's own illness or injury still owes termination pay. Severance pay (s. 64) is a separate amount, one week per year to a maximum of 26, for employees with five or more years of service whose employer has an Ontario payroll of $2.5 million or more or is severing 50 or more employees in six months. Fifty or more terminations at an establishment within four weeks need 8, 12 or 16 weeks' notice and a Form 1 to the Director. The common law usually requires more notice than the statute; the ESA is the floor.
Final pay and vacation pay
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is dismissed | All wages, including termination pay and vacation pay, by the later of 7 days after employment ends or the next regular pay day; severance pay on the same deadline unless paid in instalments by written agreement | ESA ss. 11(5), 61, 66 |
| Employee quits or abandons the job | Same deadline; the ESA requires no notice from an employee, except one who received a mass-termination notice | s. 11(5) |
| Vacation pay | 4% of wages (6% once the employee reaches 5 years), paid out on termination; accrues on termination pay but not on severance | ss. 35.2, 38 |
| Unused statutory sick days | Not paid out: the days are unpaid leave and do not carry over | s. 50 |
A contract, policy or collective agreement that gives a greater right or benefit than the ESA applies in its place (s. 5(2)).
Leave employers must provide in Ontario
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sick leave | Yes — unpaid | 3 days per calendar year (s. 50) |
| Family responsibility | Yes — unpaid | 3 days per calendar year (s. 50.0.1) |
| Bereavement | Yes — unpaid | 2 days per calendar year (s. 50.0.2) |
| Long-term illness | Yes — unpaid | 27 weeks in 52 after 13 weeks (s. 49.8) |
| Domestic or sexual violence | Yes — partly paid | 10 days (first 5 paid) plus 15 weeks a year after 13 weeks (s. 49.7) |
| Family caregiver | Yes — unpaid | 8 weeks a year per family member with a serious medical condition (s. 49.3) |
| Family medical | Yes — unpaid | 28 weeks in 52 for a relative at significant risk of death (s. 49.1) |
| Critical illness | Yes — unpaid | 37 weeks (minor child) or 17 weeks (adult) in 52, after 6 months (s. 49.4) |
| Reservist | Yes — unpaid | Duration of deployment or training, after 2 months (s. 50.2) |
| Jury duty | Yes — unpaid | Juries Act; an employer may not penalize an employee for serving |
| Vacation | Yes | 2 weeks (3 after 5 years), pay 4% / 6% |
Job-seeking leave (3 unpaid days during a mass-termination notice period, since November 27, 2025), child death, crime-related child disappearance and organ donor leaves also exist. Voting time comes from the Election Act rather than the ESA.
The Ontario 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.