BC Employment Standards Sick Days: Paid, Unpaid, Job Protection

Under BC employment standards, sick days work like this: once you’ve worked 90 consecutive days for the same employer, you’re entitled to up to five paid sick days and three unpaid sick days per calendar year for personal illness or injury. All eight days are job-protected, and the entitlement applies to full-time, part-time, and casual employees alike.¹

Who Qualifies

Eligibility starts after 90 consecutive days of employment with the same employer. The clock runs from your first day of work, and your employment status doesn’t matter as long as you stay on the payroll without a break.¹

The entitlement isn’t prorated. If you start a new job in October and cross the 90-day threshold in January, you still get the full five paid and three unpaid days for that calendar year.¹ Days reset every January 1, and unused days do not carry over.

How Paid Sick Days Are Paid

A paid sick day is paid at your average day’s pay. The calculation looks at the 30 calendar days immediately before the leave began: total wages earned in that window, divided by the number of days you actually worked in it.¹

“Total wages” for this purpose includes regular pay, commissions, and any vacation pay received during the 30-day window. Overtime is excluded, so a run of heavy overtime hours won’t inflate the daily rate.¹ If your hours or commissions vary week to week, the recent 30 days will drive the number rather than a fixed annual rate.

The Three Unpaid Days

The three unpaid sick days sit on top of the five paid ones, for a total of eight job-protected sick days per calendar year.¹ You don’t get wages for the unpaid days, but your employer can’t discipline or fire you for taking them. They reset January 1 and don’t carry over.

Telling Your Employer and Proof of Illness

Let your employer know as early as you reasonably can. Advance written notice is not a legal requirement, but giving notice helps with coverage and heads off any dispute later about whether the absence was legitimate.²

Your employer can ask for “reasonably sufficient” proof that you couldn’t work.³ For a routine illness like a cold, requiring a doctor’s note would generally be unreasonable, since that kind of illness doesn’t typically call for a clinic visit at all.⁴ Depending on the circumstances, “reasonably sufficient” proof might be a personal written statement, a pharmacy receipt, or, for a longer absence, a note from a health care provider confirming you couldn’t work. Proof confirms that you needed time off. It doesn’t require you to disclose your diagnosis or private medical details.

Job Protection

While you’re on illness or injury leave, your employer cannot terminate you or change a condition of your employment without your written consent. If operations were suspended during your absence, reinstatement obligations apply once business resumes.¹

A separate provision, Section 83, prohibits retaliation against employees who complain or take part in an investigation under the Act. An employer cannot refuse to employ you, threaten dismissal, discriminate in working conditions, or impose any penalty because you exercised your rights.⁵

Filing a Complaint

If your employer refuses your sick leave, docks your pay improperly, or retaliates against you for being absent, you can file a complaint with the Employment Standards Branch online. The filing window depends on your employment status:⁶

If you’re still working for the employer, issues from up to one year before the complaint date can be reviewed.
If you no longer work for the employer, you must file within six months of your last day, and issues from your final year of employment can be reviewed.

If you’re a union member, this route usually isn’t available to you. Where a collective agreement is in place, illness or injury leave disputes go through the union grievance procedure instead of the Employment Standards Branch.¹ Talk to your shop steward first.

When You Need More Than Eight Days

Eight days will cover a bad flu or a minor procedure. It isn’t designed for extended absences. If you’re facing a longer recovery, Employment Insurance sickness benefits through Service Canada can provide up to 26 weeks of income support when you can’t work for medical reasons; you’ll need a medical certificate.⁷ Many employees use their statutory sick days first and then move on to EI sickness benefits. Employer-sponsored short-term or long-term disability, where offered, can also help bridge the gap.

If You Work for a Bank, Airline, or Other Federally Regulated Employer

Not every job in BC falls under the provincial Employment Standards Act. If you work for a federally regulated employer, such as a bank, airline, telecommunications company, interprovincial trucking operation, or the federal government, your sick leave rights come from the Canada Labour Code instead. The federal rules provide up to 10 paid sick days per year plus up to 27 weeks of unpaid medical leave, with a shorter 30-day qualifying period and paid days that begin accruing at three and grow monthly to a 10-day cap. Unused federal paid sick days carry over, though the annual cap of 10 still applies.⁸

Contracts and Workplace Policies That Give You More

The Employment Standards Act is the floor. If your employment contract, workplace policy, or collective agreement gives you more paid sick days than five, that’s your entitlement. The statutory minimum doesn’t reduce a better benefit; it protects you when nothing better exists.

1
Province of British Columbia. Illness or Injury Leave – Act Part 6, Section 49.1
2
Province of British Columbia. Leaves of Absence
3
Province of British Columbia. Paid Sick Leave
4
Province of British Columbia. Sick Note Not Required – Act Part 6, Section 49.2
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Province of British Columbia. Employee Not to Be Mistreated Because of Complaint or Investigation
6
Province of British Columbia. File an Employment Standards Complaint
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Canada.ca. EI Sickness Benefits: What These Benefits Offer
8
Canada.ca. Types of Leaves You Can Receive as an Employee Working in a Federally Regulated Workplace