Do i get paid sick days in quebec?
Short answer
In Quebec, an employee with 3 months of uninterrupted service is entitled to 2 paid days a year among their absences for illness, organ donation, an accident, domestic violence, sexual violence, a criminal offence or family obligations (ss. 79.1 and following of the Act respecting labour standards).
In detail
Those 2 paid days are not added on top of leave for family obligations: they are taken out of that whole set of absences. In other words, the first 2 days of absence in the year, for those reasons, are paid if the 3-month condition is met; the ones that follow are without pay.
The employee must notify the employer as soon as possible and take reasonable steps to limit the length of the absence. The employer may, where the circumstances justify it and having regard to the length of the absence, ask for a document attesting to the reasons — but cannot require a medical note for the first two days taken in a 12-month period, or for more than three absences in that period.
A collective agreement or a company policy may be more generous. The Act sets a minimum, not a maximum.
What to document
Your hire date (for the 3 months of uninterrupted service), each day of absence with its reason, the time and the means by which you notified the employer, the documents you were asked for, and the pay stub showing whether the day was paid. What gets checked is the count of the days used in the year.
Put your facts in writing, free. Writing your version down early, keeping your documents dated and preparing your questions for a lawyer: the tool is there to document, never to advise.
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Official sources
- Act respecting labour standards (CQLR, c. N-1.1) — Légis Québec
- CNESST — What you need to know about absences from work
- Éducaloi — Absences for health reasons
Related questions
- How long can i be off sick without losing my job?
- How many days of leave do i get for a death in my family?
- How long are maternity leave and parental leave in quebec?
- How many weeks notice must my employer give me before dismissing me?
- I was dismissed can i contest it?
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What this page is not
This is general legal information about the law of Quebec and Canada, dated and sourced. It is not legal advice, not a strategy, and not a prediction about the outcome of a case. In Quebec, only lawyers and notaries may give legal advice (Act respecting the Barreau du Québec, ss. 128 and 133). Laws and amounts change: the official source always prevails over us.