March 31, 2004 by Israel Foulon LLP
Question: I work in British Columbia , and my mother is very sick. How much time am I entitled to take off to help her during her illness?
Answer: According to the British Columbia Employment Standards Act an employee is entitled to take up to five days of unpaid leave during each employment year for family responsibility. Family responsibility includes the care, health or education of a child in the employee’s care, or the care or health of any other member of the employee’s immediate family.
Immediate family is defined as the spouse, child, parent, guardian, sibling, grandchild or grandparent of an employee and any person who lives with an employee as a member of the employee’s family.
An employer is obliged to give an employee leave if he so requests. The employer must not terminate the employment or unilaterally change a condition of the employment due to a family responsibility leave.
Peter Israel is the senior partner in the Toronto law firm of Israel Foulon LLP – Employment and Labour Lawyers. He can be reached at 416-640-1550 or pi@qtw38575.mywhc.ca. A version of this article originally appeared in the Carswell publication, Canadian Employment Law Today