Types of leave of absence in Ontario: a guide for employers

As a business owner in Ontario, it’s important to understand that leaves of absence under the Employment Standards Act (ESA) are a legal right, not just a workplace benefit. You must provide at least the minimum entitlements set out in the legislation, though many employers choose to offer more generous leave policies to better support their teams.

Failing to comply with these minimum standards can lead to penalties or legal action, so it’s essential to stay informed and keep your workplace policies up to date.

How job protected leave works under the ESA

Under Ontario’s ESA, the following leaves of absence are job-protected—meaning that when an eligible employee takes one of these leaves, their employer must reinstate them to their original job when the leave ends, or to a comparable role if the original position no longer exists.

Employers cannot dismiss, discipline, or penalize an employee for taking a job-protected leave, nor can they reduce the employee’s pay, benefits, or seniority because of the leave.

In the case of longer leaves, such as Pregnancy Leave, Parental Leave, or Long-Term Illness Leave, the obligation to reinstate applies even after an extended absence. This ensures that employees can take necessary time away from work without fear of job loss or worsened terms of employment upon their return.

Reasonable evidence for leaves of absence

Employers may request reasonable evidence to verify certain leaves of absence. However, these requests must align with ESA guidelines and be handled with care, especially for sensitive types of leave. It will vary per type of leave requested.

Sick Leave

• Purpose: For personal illness, injury, or medical emergency

• Duration: Up to 3 unpaid days per calendar year

• Eligibility: Employed for at least 2 consecutive weeks

This leave does not apply to caring for others, it would be a different form of leave depending on the specific circumstances.

As of October 28, 2024, under the Working for Workers Five Act, 2024 (Bill 190) employers may request reasonable evidence such as self-attestation for leave under 3 consecutive days, but cannot request a doctor’s note unless it has surpassed 3 consecutive days.

Long-Term Illness Leave

• Purpose: For employees with a serious medical condition

• Duration: Up to 27 weeks unpaid

• Eligibility: Employed for at least 13 consecutive weeks

This must be verified by a qualified health practitioner through a certificate stating that the employee has a serious medical condition and will outline the period in which the employee will not be working due to their condition.

This form of leave is active as of June 19, 2025, and was passed through the Working for Workers Six Act, 2024 (Bill 229).

Employer actions should include:

• Updating their businesses leave policies

• Training management staff on accommodating this leave, and a subsequent return from this leave

• Developing procedures to request and verify the specific medical documentation

Family Responsibility Leave

• Purpose: For illness, injury, medical emergency, or urgent matter concerning a family member

  • Spouse (including common-law)

  • Parent, step-parent, or foster parent

  • Child, step-child, or foster child

  • Grandparent

  • Sibling

  • A dependent relative

• Duration: Up to 3 unpaid days per calendar year

• Eligibility: Employed for at least 2 consecutive weeks

This is a separate entitlement to sick leave (which solely applies to the employee). This leave is not pro-rated or carried over to the next year.

Employers can request reasonable evidence but must ensure that their requests don’t infringe on privacy rights.

Bereavement Leave

• Purpose: For death of certain family members

  • Spouse (including common-law partner)

  • Parent, step-parent, or foster parent

  • Child, step-child, or foster child

  • Grandparent or step-grandparent

  • Grandchild or step-grandchild

  • Spouse’s parent, step-parent, or foster parent

  • Sibling (including step-sibling)

  • A relative who is dependent on the employee for care or assistance

• Duration: Up to 2 unpaid days per calendar year

• Eligibility: Employed for at least 2 consecutive weeks.

Employers can request reasonable evidence of this, such as an obituary or a funeral notice, solely for the purpose of verifying the fact. They cannot request further details of the event.

Bereavement leave does not carry over year to year and is not pro-rated if an employee starts mid-year.

Pregnancy Leave

• Purpose: Available to pregnant employees

• Duration: Up to 17 weeks unpaid

• Eligibility: Employed for at least 13 weeks before the due date of the child.

Pregnancy leave is sometimes informally referred to as Maternity Leave.

This leave can begin up to 17 weeks before the due date, and the pregnant employee must give minimum 2 weeks of written notice. However, even if the employee doesn’t provide the minimum notice, they cannot be denied the leave.

Employers can request a medical certificate for this leave.

If the pregnancy ends in stillbirth or miscarriage, the employee remains entitled to pregnancy leave.

Parental Leave

• Purpose: To allow parents time off to care for a newborn or newly adopted child

• Duration:

  • Birth parents: up to 61 weeks unpaid (if 17 weeks pregnancy leave was taken)

  • Birth parents: up to 63 weeks unpaid (if pregnancy leave was not taken)

  • Non-birth parents: up to 63 weeks unpaid

• Eligibility: Must have been employed for 13 consecutive weeks and start leave within 78 weeks of the child’s birth or placement.

This leave is available to any employee who is a parent as defined by the ESA, including:

• Biological parents

• Adoptive parents

• Non-binary or gender-diverse parents

• Individuals in a relationship of some permanence with a parent of the child who intend to treat the child as their own

Leave can be taken consecutively with pregnancy leave or on its own. See our full guide to parental leave in Ontario for more details.

Organ Donor Leave

• Purpose: For employees to donate certain organs or tissues

• Duration:

  • Up to 13 weeks unpaid

  • Can be extended to up to 52 weeks

• Eligibility: Employed for at least 13 consecutive weeks

This leave covers both the donor’s initial surgery as well as recovery time.

It must be verified via medical certificate. Extensions require updated medical documentation.

Family Medical Leave

• Purpose: To care for a family member with a serious medical condition with significant risk of death

• Duration: Up to 28 weeks unpaid in a 52-week period

• Eligibility: No minimum employment service is required, but medical documentation is necessary

This can be taken over a single period or split into separate periods. Employees may be eligible for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits through the federal Compassionate Care Benefit.

Family Caregiver Leave

• Purpose: For providing care/support to a family member with a serious medical condition (no risk of death required)

• Duration: Up to 8 unpaid weeks per year per specified family member

• Eligibility: No minimum employment period, but medical documentation is required.

This is separate from Family Medical Leave.

This leave can be taken intermittently or in one concurrent period—of which should be agreed between employer and employee.

Family caregiver leave has broader allowances on whom the leave can be spent upon, as per the ESA. This can include:

• Spouse (including common-law partner)

• Parent, step-parent, or foster parent

• Child, step-child, or foster child

• Grandparent or step-grandparent

• Grandchild or step-grandchild

• Spouse’s parent, step-parent, or foster parent

• Spouse’s child, step-child, or foster child

• Sibling (including step-sibling)

• Spouse’s sibling

• Uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece

• Spouse’s uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece

• A person who considers the employee to be like a family member, or whom the employee considers to be like a family member (with required documentation)

Critical Illness Leave

• Purpose: For providing care to a critically ill individual

• Duration:

  • Up to 37 weeks (for a child)

  • Up to 17 weeks (for an adult family member)

• Eligibility: 6 months of concurrent employment and medical documentation.

This leave can be flexibly scheduled. The required medical documentation must specify the need for care.

Employees taking this leave may be eligible for the federal EI Critical Illness benefit.

Child Death Leave

• Purpose: For death of a child (under 18) due to any cause

• Duration: Up to 104 weeks unpaid

• Eligibility: No minimum service required; written notice must be provided to the employer.

There is no explicit documentation required for this leave, but reasonable evidence can be requested—due to the highly sensitive nature of this leave, employers must make every reasonable effort not to cause distress or undue hardship to the employee with their request.

Crime-Related Child Disappearance Leave

• Purpose: If a child (under 18) disappears and it is probable the disappearance is due to a crime

• Duration: Up to 104 weeks unpaid

• Eligibility: 6 months of continuous employment, and the police must have informed the employee that the child’s disappearance is probable to be the result of a crime.

This leave typically begins the day the child is reported missing. It may be paused or ended early depending on the outcome of the situation (such as the child being found alive, or the disappearance is determined not to be crime related).

In the event the child is found deceased, the employee remains on Crime-Related Child Disappearance Leave until the end of the week in which the child is found. After that, the employee is separately entitled to up to 104 weeks of Child Death Leave.

Employers may request documentation, such as a police report. However, due to the highly sensitive nature of this leave, employers must take the utmost care not to cause additional undue stress. If the leave begins suddenly, providing space and time before requesting documentation is strongly advised.

New: (Date TBD) Placement of a Child Leave

• Purpose: For employees when a child is placed in their custody, care and control for the first time—relevant to:

  • Adoption

  • Surrogacy

• Duration: Up to 16 weeks unpaid

• Eligibility: 13 weeks of consecutive employment, with the leave to start no earlier than 6 weeks before the placement, and to end no later than 17 weeks post-placement.

Employees must give at least 2 weeks of written notice to their employer, prior to beginning this leave—or as soon as possible in the case of a sudden placement. The written notice must outline intended start and end dates, with amendments to end dates requiring 4 weeks minimum notice to the employer.

This leave is specifically available to employees having a child placed in their custody, not for the birth of a child to the employee. Employers can request reasonable evidence, however, due to the sensitive nature of adoption and surrogacy; these requests must be made with maximum discretion.

This leave has received royal assent but has not come into effect yet. This date will be proclaimed by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario in due course. Employers should seek to update their policies on leave once this date is announced.

Domestic or Sexual Violence Leave

• Purpose: For employees, or the employees' children, who have experienced or are experiencing domestic or sexual violence. The leave may be used for:

  • Seeking medical attention

  • Obtaining victim services or psychological counselling

  • Relocating temporarily or permanently

  • Seeking legal or law enforcement assistance

  • Any other reasonable purpose related to the violence or its aftermath

• Duration: Up to 10 individual days and 15 weeks total per calendar year (can be taken in days or weeks)

• Eligibility:

  • Unpaid: no minimum employment period required

  • Paid: the first 5 days will be paid if the employee has been employed at the business for at least 13 consecutive weeks

Employees must provide written notice as soon as possible if they take this leave. Employers may request reasonable evidence of entitlement, but given the highly sensitive nature of this leave, requests should be handled with maximum discretion and care.

Reservist Leave

• Purpose: For employees who are military reservists, to allow them to take unpaid leave for:

  • Deployment to an international operation

  • Deployment to a domestic operation (including emergency response)

  • Required military training connected to either of the above

• Duration: Unpaid, with no specified maximum duration, dependent upon length of deployment or training.

• Eligibility: At least 6 consecutive months of employment with the employer.

Employees must provide written notice to their employer as soon as possible, and as far in advance as reasonable. The employer may request reasonable evidence (such as written confirmation from the Canadian Forces) to support the leave request.

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