Stress Leave in Alberta: A Guide for Employers

When employees are struggling with stress, they are entitled to different forms of leave to rest, recover and seek treatment.

Stress, anxiety, depression, burnout and other medical conditions can result in an employee needing to take short or extended leave to recover, and as an employer, you are required to support them.

Here’s what you need to know about stress and mental health leave in Alberta.

How does stress leave work in Alberta?

Under Alberta’s Employment Standards Code (ESC), there isn’t a specifically named “stress leave”, but there are different leaves that serve the purpose of stress leave, which are personal and family responsibility leave and long-term illness and injury leave.

These leaves exist to support all forms of health, including mental health reasons; employees are entitled to take them for stress, anxiety, depression, burnout and other mental health reasons, but there are different qualifying reasons and terms of eligibility for each.

It’s important to note that employers aren’t entitled to a diagnosis from an employee, and while this can make supporting your staff difficult at times, it’s important to respect their privacy and avoid causing your employee undue stress or hardship with leave requests.

How employees qualify for stress related leave in Alberta

Depending on the type of leave that the employee chooses to take for their stress, employers will have slightly different obligations.

Personal and family responsibility leave

• 5 days of unpaid leave

• This leave is job protected

• Can be taken for health reasons

• Medical certificates aren’t required

Employees are entitled to take personal and family responsibility leave for stress related reasons. Under the ESC, this leave may be taken if necessary for the health of the employee, and employees become eligible to take this leave after 90 days of continuous employment with the business.

Employees in Alberta are entitled to up to 5 unpaid, job protected days of personal and family responsibility leave each calendar year. While employees aren’t automatically required to provide a medical certificate, employers do have the right to request reasonable proof to support the need for the leave, which may include a note from a qualified health practitioner.

It isn’t advisable to require a medical certificate to be provided every time an employee takes this leave, especially as it can negatively impact stress levels for already stressed employees.

If you notice an employee using a large amount of this leave during a small timeframe, you could reach out and check to see if they’re well, and if there are any accommodations you can make in the workplace.

Long term illness and injury leave

For more severe instances of stress, employees may need to take an extended period of time away from work. In this case, they would take long term illness and injury leave, a job-protected leave under Alberta’s ESC.

Employees can take up to 16 weeks of unpaid leave, but are required to provide a medical certificate to their employer that states the estimated duration of the leave. This medical certificate does not have to immediately be provided to begin the leave, but should be provided as soon as possible.

This medical note should include the estimated duration of the absence or when the next follow-up is expected with the employee—to ensure that the employer knows when to reasonably request an updated certificate or expect the employee to return to work.

An employee becomes eligible for this leave after 90 days of continuous employment, but employers can choose to grant this leave regardless of their employment duration. If there is a policy, contract or agreement in place that grants the employee leave earlier than 90 days, it must be upheld.

How to support your employees with their stress

If you have employees that are taking stress leave, you must make every reasonable effort to support their return to work, and their ongoing employment.

If an employee has provided a medical certificate stating their need for leave, you can request information that would help you support them, but you cannot request a diagnosis or any information irrelevant to the leave.

Your request could include whether the employee will require further support, and whether accommodations could be made. Medical practitioners may state that an employee can return to work after 10 weeks, but will require reduced duties upon their return. You can start these conversations with employees, but remember, they do not have to disclose their diagnosis, or any information not directly related to supporting them.

If you see a pattern of one or more employees beginning to take stress related leave, you should review whether your workplace is causing burnout, and if there are any changes that can be made to support your workforce.

Stress related accommodations

When you’ve identified that one of more of your employees may be struggling with stress or their mental health, making reasonable adjustments and accommodations would be best practice—whether or not you’ve received a medical certificate stating the need for them.

Making accommodations for employees will potentially help them achieve a full recovery, improve morale, retention and more—as well as proving compliance with the ESC.

Some reasonable adjustments that you could make include:

Workload adjustments

An employer could reduce the workload of an employee altogether, or help structure their workload in a more manageable format.

Increasing staffing levels

If you’ve found that several employees are stressed or burned out, and it doesn’t feel feasible to cut back workloads, you may choose to hire more people to spread the work more evenly.

Scheduling changes

Medical practitioners often suggest more flexibility in scheduling when supporting an employee with health issues. This may be in the form of flexible start and end times, or to schedule the employee at certain times that support their recovery. For example, it may help an employee to have finished work by 3pm, thus changing their shift to a morning shift, or allowing an earlier start in the office may be a potential solution.

Support resources

To increase the amount of support available to all employees in the form of a wellness program, or an employee assistance program, can prove beneficial for all employees. Whether through counselling, therapy or enabling them to attend or obtain medical help for their problems, this can reduce absenteeism as well as support a healthier workforce.

Stay compliant and support your employees properly

It’s important for employers to have compliant leave policies in place, and to ensure that management teams handle leave requests properly.

Start with your workplace policies and procedures, ensure they’re clear, are compliant with Alberta’s Employment Standards Code and that they’re readily available. You can access compliant policy templates through BrightBase.

In the event you’re unsure how to handle leave requests or support an employee, call an expert. BrightHR offers unlimited, expert employee relations advice 24/7.

Book a free demo today to find out how BrightHR can support your business.