This bulletin is intended to remind members of your rights to paid sick leave.

In early 2022, the BC Government made changes to the Employment Standards Act (ESA) regarding paid sick leave (referred to as personal illness or injury). These changes, if they exceed what your collective agreement requires, apply to you (even though they may not be written in your collective agreement).

The new ESA provisions for sick leave entitles all workers to a minimum of five (5) days of sick leave per calendar year at full pay (as if the person was at work). This applies to auxiliary and regular employees. To be entitled to this, an employee must have worked with the employer for at least 90 days prior. Auxiliaries who come back to work with recall rights after a period of layoff, don't have to have the 90 days "reset" to qualify.

The five (5) sick days' entitlement are on a calendar basis and can't be carried over from one year to the next.

If your collective agreement has a provision that provides for at least five (5) full paid sick days per year, then this doesn't apply. If your collective agreement has paid sick days, but they are at less than full pay, then the first five (5) days of illness or injury in a calendar year has to be at full pay. For example, in the highway maintenance sector, many collective agreements have short term illness and injury (STIIP) at 75% and also include a provision where the first day of STIIP is at 0% pay. If that is the case in your collective agreement, you would be entitled to the first five (5) days of sick leave in a calendar year at full pay regardless and the STIIP at 0% pay would not apply until you have at least utilized all of those five (5) days at full pay.

Please note, this does not apply if you are injured on the worksite and thus access WCB benefits.

If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact your steward at the worksite. If your employer is not following this process, please contact your steward to initiate the grievance procedure. If you are a steward and have questions, please contact your area office.

Rory Smith 
Vice President 
Operational Services Component

Frank N. Anderson
Director

Download PDF of notice here

UWU/MoveUP