Restrictions on requesting sick notes in force
On November 12, 2025, Bill 11 received Royal Assent bringing into force changes to the British Columbia Employment Standards Act (BC ESA) that restricts an employer from requiring employees to provide notes from medical practitioners in certain circumstances. Where an employee requires a leave of absence that is five days or less, relates to the health, illness or an injury of the employee or a “prescribed individual,” and constitutes one of the first two such absences in the calendar year, the employer may not require the employee to provide a note from a qualified medical practitioner to substantiate the leave. If an employer does require such a note, employees are not obligated to provide one. The Employment Standards Act Regulation has yet to be updated with respect to a list of prescribed individuals to which these amendments also apply but it should be expected to consistent with the definitions of immediate family members applicable to other leaves under the BC ESA.
Importantly, Bill 11 does not eliminate an employer’s right to require employees provide “reasonably sufficient proof” to substantiate any request for a medical leave of absence. Employers are simply no longer permitted to require that a signed medical note be provided as such substantiation. Accordingly, employers should consider other documentation that may provide such reasonably sufficient proof.
Serious injury and illness leave
On October 20, 2025, the Minister of Labour introduced Bill 30, the Employment Standards (Serious Illness or Injury Leave) Amendment Act, 2025. Once enacted, employees covered by the BC ESA will be entitled to up to 27 weeks of unpaid leave within a 52 week period due to serious illness or injury. Presently, the Employment Standards Act requires employers in British Columbia to provide five days of paid leave and a further three days of unpaid leave if an employee that has been employed for at least 90 consecutive days suffers a personal illness or injury.
This proposed amendment would entitle employees who are unable to work due to a “serious personal illness or injury” to a statutorily protected leave of absence. Bill 30 entitles employees to use this leave in units of one or more weeks, such that employees who suffer from an intermittent illness or require ongoing treatments are provided with the flexibility to work and take job-protected leave as necessary.
To access serious illness or injury leave, employees will be required to obtain a certificate from a health practitioner which states: (i) that the employee is unable to work due to medical reasons; (ii) the date that this inability began (or is anticipated to begin); and (iii) the date that the employee is expected to be able to return to work without a need for any further leave. Employees will be required to provide this certificate to their employer as soon as practicable.
Employers in British Columbia already have obligations under the Human Rights Code to accommodate employees with disabilities to the point of undue hardship and similar duties to accommodate and return individuals to work after an absence relating to workplace injury arising under the Workers Compensation Act. Bill 30, if enacted, would provide employees with a separate right under the Employment Standards Act to a job-protected leave in the event of a serious illness or injury, whether or not such illness or injury were otherwise subject to the duty to accommodate or return to work requirements as arising under these other statutes. Upon completion of this leave, employees would be entitled to be returned to their pre-leave position, or, if that position is no longer available, a position that is comparable.
For more information, please contact the authors, Eleni Kassaris and Salim Visram.
