Bill 7 explained in plain English
10 Paid Sick Days for Ontario Workers Act, 2021
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 42nd Parliament, 2nd 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 provide employees with up to 10 paid days of personal emergency leave per year for various personal and family health-related reasons, and increases paid infectious disease emergency leave to 10 days.
Bill 7, the 10 Paid Sick Days for Ontario Workers Act, 2021, amends the Employment Standards Act, 2000. It replaces existing sick leave, family responsibility leave, and bereavement leave with a new personal emergency leave. Employees who have worked for at least one week are entitled to up to 10 paid days of this leave per year for reasons such as personal illness, injury, medical emergency, or the illness, injury, medical emergency, or an urgent matter concerning certain family members. For employees working less than one week, the leave is unpaid initially and becomes paid once they reach one week of employment, with unpaid days counting towards the paid entitlement. The bill also requires the Minister to implement a program to support employers in providing this leave, which may include financial support if funds are allocated by the Legislature. Additionally, it increases the paid infectious disease emergency leave from three to 10 days.
- Establishes a new personal emergency leave entitlement for employees.
- Specifies the reasons for which an employee can take personal emergency leave.
- Defines who qualifies as a family member for the purpose of personal emergency leave.
- Entitles employees who have worked at least one week to up to 10 paid days of personal emergency leave annually.
- Provides for unpaid personal emergency leave for employees with less than one week of employment, which counts towards paid leave once they reach one week.
- Requires employers to pay employees for paid personal emergency leave.
- Outlines how pay for personal emergency leave is calculated.
- States that employees are not entitled to overtime or premium pay on top of their regular rate when taking paid personal emergency leave, nor premium pay if the leave falls on a public holiday.
- Allows employers to require reasonable evidence of entitlement to personal emergency leave, but prohibits requiring a certificate from a qualified health practitioner.
- Requires the Minister to implement an employer support program for personal emergency leave.
- Allows the employer support program to include financial support if Legislature funds are allocated.
- Requires consultation with industry leaders for the employer support program.
- Increases the number of paid infectious disease emergency leave days from three to 10.
- Employees in Ontario
- Employers in Ontario
- The Minister of Labour (or equivalent)
- Employees have the right to up to 10 paid days of personal emergency leave annually if employed for at least one week.
- Employees have the right to unpaid personal emergency leave if employed for less than one week.
- Employees have the right to up to 10 paid days of infectious disease emergency leave annually.
- Employers are obligated to provide personal emergency leave and pay for it under specified conditions.
- Employers are obligated to implement an employer support program for personal emergency leave.
- Employers may require reasonable evidence for personal emergency leave but cannot request a health practitioner's certificate.
- The Minister is obligated to implement an employer support program for personal emergency leave.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The employer support program may include financial support for employers if funds are appropriated by the Legislature.
- The specific circumstances under which an employer can deem any part of a day as a full day of leave are not fully detailed.
- The bill does not specify how the 'employer support program' will be implemented beyond requiring the Minister to do so and mentioning potential financial support and consultation.
- The bill does not specify what constitutes a 'prescribed circumstance' or 'prescribed class of health practitioners' for the definition of 'qualified health practitioner'.
- The bill does not specify the process or timeline for the Minister to implement the employer support program.
This is the primary act being amended by Bill 7. It changes provisions related to various types of leave and introduces a new personal emergency leave and an employer support program.
Source: Bill 7, Explanatory Note, Section 1, Section 2, Section 3, Section 4
The existing provisions for sick leave, family responsibility leave, and bereavement leave are removed and replaced with new rules for personal emergency leave.
Source: Section 3
These sections, which dealt with family responsibility leave and bereavement leave, are repealed.
Source: Section 3
The number of paid infectious disease emergency leave days is increased from three to 10.
Source: Section 4
A new definition for 'personal emergency leave pay' is added, and the definition of 'regular wages' is updated to exclude personal emergency leave pay.
Source: Section 1 (1) and (2)
References to sick leave, family responsibility leave, and bereavement leave are replaced with 'personal emergency leave'.
Source: Section 2
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
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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.
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