OSSTF York Region

Compassionate Care or Family Care Leave

There are two different options for leaves for taking care of ill members of the family. You need to decide based on the criteria for what will meet all of the needs for your situation:

1. Family Caregiver leave
A Family Caregiver Leave is an unpaid, job protected leave of up to 8 weeks per calendar year for each individual, to provide care or support to a specified family member where a qualified health practitioner has issued a certificate stating that the individual has a serious medical condition. Provide your Principal/Manager a written plans or include in the comments, the scheduled leave dates if not consecutive. For the purpose of this leave, ‘weeks’ means a period of 7 days beginning on Sunday and ending on Saturday. Therefore, the 8 weeks are counted from the Sunday of the first week off to the Saturday of the last week off. 

Required: Certificate/note from qualified health practitioner

​

2. Compassionate care leave

A Compassionate Care Leave is an unpaid, job-protected leave of up to 28 weeks within a 52 week period.   A Compassionate Care Leave may be taken to provide care and support to a specified family member for whom a qualified health practitioner has issued a certificate/note indicating that the family member has a serious medical condition and there is a significant risk of death within a specified 26 week period. This is a Legislative Leave covered by the Employment Standards Act.

Required: Certificate/note from qualified health practitioner. 
 

Family members that qualify are:

• the employee's spouse (including same-sex spouse)

• a parent, step-parent or foster parent of the employee or the employee's spouse

• a child, step-child or foster child of the employee or the employee's spouse

• a brother, step-brother, sister, or step-sister of the employee

• a grandparent or step-grandparent of the employee or of the employee's spouse

• a grandchild or step-grandchild of the employee or of the employee's spouse

• a brother-in-law, step-brother-in-law, sister-in-law or step-sister-in-law of the employee

• a son-in-law or daughter-in-law of the employee or of the employee's spouse

• an uncle or aunt of the employee or of the employee's spouse

• a nephew or niece of the employee or of the employee's spouse

• the spouse of the employee's grandchild, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece

Care or support includes, but is not limited to providing psychological or emotional support; arranging for care by a third-party provider; or directly providing or participating in the care of the family member.

​

These are unpaid leaves, meaning you are not using your sick leave, but they are statutory, meaning you can get EI while you are off work and use the SEB (supplemental employee benefit) to top up the leave for up to 8 weeks. The names are not exactly the same, but the benefits apply.

​

Employment Insurance (EI)

The Maximum EI payment is $650 per week (as of Jan 2023)

For more information on eligibility and waiting periods, please contact your EI office at  www.servicecanada.gc.ca or call 1-800-206-7218 and press “0” to speak with an attendant.

Supplemental Employment Benefit (SEB) plan

The SEB plan covers 8 weeks of top-up of your EI to full salary for the leave. It is a reimbursement plan that is made by direct deposit into your account. 

The lump sum payment is made up of the following:

• Providing the one-week waiting period is served for Compassionate Care or Critical Illness benefits, the employee will be paid 100% of their salary.

• For the following seven weeks the employee’s E.I. benefits will be supplemented up to 100% of their regular earnings.

Details from the collective agreement are in C8.1 Family Medical Leave or Critical Illness Leave 

​

To Apply:

On the BWW you would access the e-form by going to:

• employee self-serve

• e-forms

• long term leave request

• New request 

• choose leave type from the drop down menu