Bill 200 explained in plain English
Employment Standards Amendment Act (Sick Notes), 2020
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
This Bill amends the Employment Standards Act, 2000, to prohibit employers from requiring employees to provide a certificate from a qualified health practitioner as evidence for sick leave, while still allowing for other reasonable evidence.
Bill 200, the Employment Standards Amendment Act (Sick Notes), 2020, changes the rules about what evidence an employer can ask for when an employee takes sick leave. Employers can still ask for proof that an employee is entitled to sick leave, but they cannot require the employee to provide a doctor's note or a certificate from a qualified health practitioner. The Act also clarifies what a "qualified health practitioner" means for the purposes of this rule. This amendment to the Employment Standards Act, 2000, came into effect one month after receiving Royal Assent.
- Changes the Employment Standards Act, 2000, to specify what evidence employers can request from employees taking sick leave.
- Prohibits employers from requiring a certificate from a qualified health practitioner as proof for sick leave.
- Allows employers to require other forms of evidence that are reasonable in the circumstances for sick leave entitlement.
- Defines 'qualified health practitioner' for the purposes of the Act.
- Employees in Ontario who take sick leave.
- Employers in Ontario who are subject to the Employment Standards Act, 2000.
- Employees have the right to take sick leave without being required to provide a certificate from a qualified health practitioner.
- Employers have the right to require employees to provide evidence reasonable in the circumstances to prove entitlement to sick leave, but cannot demand a specific type of certificate.
- The Act came into force one month after it received Royal Assent.
- The definition of 'qualified health practitioner' includes persons qualified to practice as a physician or nurse under the laws of the jurisdiction where care is provided, or members of a prescribed class of health practitioners in prescribed circumstances. The specific 'prescribed circumstances' and 'prescribed class of health practitioners' are not detailed in this bill text and would likely be defined in regulations.
- The phrase 'evidence reasonable in the circumstances' is not explicitly defined in the bill and its interpretation may depend on specific situations or future legal interpretation.
Adds new rules about what evidence employers can ask for when employees take sick leave. It specifically prohibits requiring a doctor's note but allows for other reasonable proof.
Source: Section 1
This specific subsection dealing with evidence for sick leave is removed and replaced with new wording that limits the type of evidence an employer can demand.
Source: Section 1
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
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Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced