Ontario Employment Standards: Job-Protected Leaves of Absence

Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) gives employees a set of unpaid (and, in one case, partly paid), job-protected leaves of absence. They differ in length, in how long someone must already have worked, and in whether a medical certificate is required — but they all sit on one common framework: a leave is protected, so benefits and seniority keep accruing while the employee is away and the employer must take them back at the end. This page explains that shared framework first, then catalogues each leave, and links every rule to the official source.

One idea governs everything below. The ESA sets a floor, not a ceiling. These are statutory minimum entitlements. An employer’s own policy or contract can be more generous, and other statutes — the Human Rights Code’s duty to accommodate family status, disability and pregnancy in particular — can require more than the ESA leave provisions alone. Meeting the ESA minimum is the start of the analysis, not the end of it.

The time-limited COVID-19 Infectious Disease Emergency Leave is not covered here; it sits on its own historical page, Infectious Disease Emergency Leave (Ontario ESA).

What rights does an employee keep while on an ESA leave?

An ESA leave is job-protected: while the employee is away, their benefit-plan participation continues unless they opt out in writing, the leave period counts toward length of employment, length of service and seniority, and when the leave ends the employer must reinstate them to the role they most recently held — or a comparable role — at no less than what they would have been earning had they kept working.

Three things flow from the leave being protected, and this is where employers most often get caught off guard.

Benefits keep going — with one exception. During most ESA leaves, the employee continues to participate in the employer’s benefit plans — pension, life insurance, accidental death, extended health and dental — unless they give written notice opting out. The employer must keep paying the employer’s share of premiums unless the employee notifies them in writing that the employee will not be paying their own contributions. The exception: benefit continuation does not apply during a reservist leave itself; it kicks back in only if reinstatement is postponed under the postponement rules.

Time on leave still counts. The leave period counts toward length of employment, length of service and seniority, regardless of whether the person is actively at work. The one carve-out: leave time does not count toward completing a probationary period.

Reinstatement at the end. When the leave ends the employer must reinstate the employee to the role they most recently held — or a comparable role if that position no longer exists. The wage must be at least what they last earned, or what they would be earning had they worked throughout the leave, whichever is greater. The narrow exception: if the employment is ended solely for reasons entirely unrelated to the leave, reinstatement is not required.

A few practical points apply across the leaves. Vacation that would otherwise be forfeited can usually be deferred until after the leave ends. Each leave entitlement under the Act operates independently and stacks with every other entitlement. Reservist leave has additional rules around reinstatement timing, including a possible short postponement after the leave concludes.

Source: Employment Standards Act, 2000, ss. 51–53.1.

The statute is the floor, not the ceiling. These are the ESA’s minimum protections for an employee on leave. A more generous policy or contract can promise more, and the Human Rights Code can independently require an employer to accommodate the underlying circumstance — a pregnancy, a disability, or a family-status obligation — beyond what the ESA leave provisions alone demand.

How long are pregnancy, parental and placement-of-a-child leaves in Ontario?

Pregnancy leave is up to 17 weeks. Parental leave is up to 61 weeks for an employee who also took pregnancy leave, 62 weeks for an employee who also took placement-of-a-child leave (once that amendment is proclaimed in force), or 63 weeks in all other cases. Placement-of-a-child leave is up to 16 weeks, shared across all employees for the same child. There are three types, and they interact with each other.

Pregnancy leave. A pregnant employee can take up to 17 weeks off, provided her due date falls at least 13 weeks after she began working for that employer. Leave can start as early as 17 weeks before the due date, and no later than the due date or delivery day. She normally gives at least two weeks’ written notice; if the employer asks, she also provides a certificate from a legally qualified medical practitioner — a physician, a midwife, or a registered nurse with an extended certificate — confirming the due date. If a complication or an unexpected birth forces her off work suddenly, the two-week advance-notice requirement does not apply: she has two weeks after stopping work to give written notice.

Parental leave. A parent who has completed at least 13 weeks of employment is entitled to unpaid leave following the birth of a child or the child first coming into their custody, care and control. Leave must begin no later than 78 weeks after that triggering date. An employee who took pregnancy leave must roll directly into parental leave when pregnancy leave ends, unless the child has not yet come into her care. How long parental leave lasts depends on what other leave the employee took: 61 weeks if the employee also took pregnancy leave; 62 weeks if the employee also took placement-of-a-child leave (once that amendment is proclaimed in force); or 63 weeks in all other cases. Two weeks’ written notice is required to start.

Placement-of-a-child leave. This newer entitlement — phasing in by proclamation — covers employees with at least 13 weeks of service when a child first arrives through adoption or through a surrogate birth. The total entitlement is 16 weeks, taken in a single period, and must end no later than 17 weeks after the placement date. The 16 weeks is a shared pool across all employees for the same child: if two parents each work for the same or different employers, together they cannot take more than 16 weeks in respect of that child. If the placement falls through after leave begins, the leave continues for 14 days after the employee learns of that fact.

A common set of errors here: miscounting the qualifying weeks, demanding more documentation than is reasonable in the circumstances, or treating a departure during leave as a voluntary resignation. When an employee wants to end employment during or at the close of any of these leaves, they owe at least four weeks’ written notice of termination — unless the employer has constructively dismissed them, in which case that obligation does not apply.

Source: Employment Standards Act, 2000, ss. 45–49.

The statute is the floor, not the ceiling. The ESA fixes the maximum length of these leaves and the minimum protections around them. The Human Rights Code separately prohibits discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy and family status, so an employer’s obligations toward a new or expecting parent can extend beyond the ESA’s leave durations.

What unpaid medical and caregiver leaves does the ESA provide?

The ESA provides family medical leave (up to 28 weeks), family caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks per family member per calendar year), critical illness leave (up to 37 weeks for a critically ill minor child or up to 17 weeks for a critically ill adult family member), long-term illness leave (up to 27 weeks for the employee’s own serious medical condition), organ donor leave (up to 13 weeks, extendable to 26), and sick leave (up to 3 days a year), each with its own service requirement and certificate rules. They differ in length, in how long someone must already have worked, and in whether a medical certificate is needed.

• Family medical leave — up to 28 weeks to care for a wide circle of family (and people who treat the employee “like a family member”) when a health practitioner certifies a serious condition carrying a significant risk of death within 26 weeks. No minimum service. Taken in whole weeks, and the 28 weeks is shared if more than one employee cares for the same person.
• Family caregiver leave — up to 8 weeks per family member per calendar year for a serious medical condition (chronic or episodic counts). A certificate is required; no minimum service.
• Critical illness leave — for someone employed at least six straight months: up to 37 weeks to care for a critically ill minor child, or up to 17 weeks for a critically ill adult family member.
• Long-term illness leave — for someone employed at least 13 straight weeks: up to 27 weeks off for the employee’s own serious medical condition (again, chronic or episodic counts), with a certificate.
• Organ donor leave — for someone employed at least 13 weeks: up to 13 weeks off for donation surgery, extendable to a 26-week ceiling if a practitioner certifies continued recovery.
• Sick leave — after two straight weeks of work, up to 3 days a year for personal illness, injury, or medical emergency.

A common error is demanding a doctor’s note for the three-day sick leave. An employer may ask for reasonable evidence, but cannot require a certificate from a health practitioner for that one. The longer leaves run in whole weeks, and a part-week may count as a full week against the cap.

Source: Employment Standards Act, 2000, ss. 49.1–50.

The statute is the floor, not the ceiling. These are minimum statutory leaves. Where the underlying condition is a disability, the Human Rights Code’s duty to accommodate operates independently of these caps, and can require an employer to do more than simply grant the ESA leave and reinstate at its end.

Which short-term family, bereavement, domestic-violence and special leaves does the ESA require?

Beyond pregnancy and parental, the ESA sets out several job-protected leaves, each with its own qualifying service, its own limit, and a duty to notify the employer. Almost all are unpaid; the big exception is the paid part of domestic or sexual violence leave.

The short ones. After two weeks on the job, an employee gets up to three unpaid days a year of family responsibility leave for the illness, injury, medical emergency or an urgent matter of a listed family member, and up to two unpaid days a year of bereavement leave when one of those people dies. Job-seeking leave gives up to three unpaid days during a statutory notice period to look for work, though it disappears if the employer pays out termination so that working notice is a quarter of what the Act requires, or less.

Domestic or sexual violence leave. After 13 weeks, an employee who — or whose child — experiences such violence or its threat can take up to 10 days plus up to 15 weeks in a calendar year, for purposes like medical care, counselling, relocating or legal help. The first five days each year are paid. It does not apply where the employee is the abuser, and the employer must keep the records confidential.

The long ones. With six months’ service, a parent gets up to 104 weeks if a child under 18 dies, or disappears in circumstances that look crime-related, taken in a single block within a 105-week window. A reservist on qualifying duty also gets unpaid leave, generally after two months.

A common error is over-documenting. Counting partial days as whole days is allowed, but demanding more proof than is “reasonable in the circumstances” is not. On domestic or sexual violence leave the Act does not ban a doctor’s note outright — it requires that evidence be reasonable in the circumstances — but it does require confidentiality of any records the employee provides.

Source: Employment Standards Act, 2000, ss. 49.5–50.3.

The statute is the floor, not the ceiling. These leaves are statutory minimums. A more generous workplace policy can offer more time or more paid days, and the Human Rights Code’s family-status protections can require accommodation beyond the day-counts above.

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This page is general information about Ontario employment law, not legal advice. If a reinstatement, benefits, or documentation question gets complicated, obtain advice before acting on any of the above.