Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Emergency Leave
Broadly speaking, committee members and stakeholders welcomed the introduction of emergency leave provisions into the Employment Standards Act. Committee recognizes the employees may need more than the current yearly minimum of five days of sick leave, without pay. With the addition of emergency leave, workers will have access to unpaid leave in the event of an emergency, such as the ongoing COVID-19 emergency, when they are unable to perform their duties.
Emergency Leave - What it Means
Employees will be entitled to unpaid "emergency leave" when a government agency has declared an emergency, defined as:
- a state of emergency declared under Section 14 of the Emergency Management Act or a state of local emergency declared under Section 18 of that act;
- a state of public health emergency declared under Section 32 of the Public Health Act;
- a direction or order of a public health officer, the Chief Public Health Officer or a deputy chief public health officer provided or made under the Public Health Act; or
- an emergency declared under the Emergencies Act (Canada).
Emergency Leave - Employment Standards Regulations
Bill 20 allows the Department of Education, Culture and Employment ("the department") to prescribe an emergency in the Employment Standards Regulations to access emergency leave when the state of emergency has ended. If there is an emergency affecting a family member of an employee, the employee is entitled to the leave when:
- the circumstance results in a situation where the family member of the employee requires care, childcare, or assistance;
- the employee is the person most reasonably able under the circumstances to provide the family member with the required care, childcare, or assistance; and
- providing the required care, childcare, or assistance to the family member has the effect of preventing the employee from performing the duties of their employment.
In their plain language summary explaining emergency leave amendments, the department states, if an emergency exists due to a pandemic of a reportable disease, an employee will be able to access the leave when the employee is unable to work because:
- they are under medical investigation/supervision/treatment related to the reportable disease;
- they are required to self-isolate or quarantine related to the reportable disease because of the direction of a health officer, healthcare professional, or government agency;
- they were directed by the employer not to work due to a concern that the employee could expose others to the reportable disease in the workplace;
- they are required to care for a family member or dependent who is affected by the reportable disease; or
- they are directly affected by travel restrictions related to the emergency, depending on the circumstances.
Emergency leave does not require an employee to have worked for an employer for any set amount of time to be eligible. The period of leave would end when the employee is no longer unable to work for the reasons above or when the emergency ends. Emergency leave also does not require a doctor's note.
Mr. Speaker, I will now pass the reading of the report to the MLA for the Deh Cho. Thank you.