Changes to British Columbia’s employment standards legislation to no longer allow employers to require sick notes for short term absences are welcome after a decade of advocacy, says Doctors of BC president Dr. Charlene Lui.
She said the group is “very pleased” that the province has moved to eliminate the need for employees to get “routine sick notes” for short-term absences from work.
B.C.’s labour and health ministries announced Tuesday that changes would be made to the province’s Employment Standards Act, which will stop employers from asking employees for “unnecessary” sick notes, Labour Minister Jennifer Whiteside said.
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The ministries said in a statement that the current law allows employers to request proof of sickness from employees, but the changes will “clarify” that workers are not required to provide sick notes for short-term absences.
Health Minister Josie Osborne said making people leave home for sick notes can “can often do more harm than good,” by spreading illnesses and delaying their recovery, while “making it harder for people who have more urgent issues to be able to see their health-care provider.”
The ministries said the new regulations will establish what constitutes a short-term absence and they’re set to be in place before respiratory illness season begins this fall.
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The changes come after both the Canadian Medical Association and Doctors of BC advocated for sick note requirements to be eliminated last year. The association estimates that B.C. doctors wrote about 1.6 million sick notes last year.
Lui said employers may have been “quite concerned” about employees using sick days inappropriately, but disallowing them from requiring notes “is a big move in the right direction.” She noted there are some circumstances where sick notes are appropriate, such as prolonged absences where a doctor can provide some meaningful insight into an employee’s condition.
However, Lui added workers who catch the common cold shouldn’t be made to leave home to get a note for a few days off work to recover. “Those are the circumstances where we don’t see the value of requiring a sick note.”
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