I have received a lot of queries regarding the new Personal Emergency Leave days being proposed by the Ontario Government in “Bill 47“.

Yes, employers will be allowed to ask for doctor’s notes when workers take sick days, starting January 1 2019!

The PEL provisions have been reduced from 10 days to 8.  Workers will now receive 3 unpaid “sick” days, 3 unpaid “family responsibility” days and 2 unpaid “bereavement” days.

Currently, these PEL days are considered to be separate entities, meaning that if a worker uses their 3 sick days but not the 2 bereavement days, and then needs a fourth sick day, they cannot use a bereavement day to cover the sick day.

The unpaid PEL days will also be counted against any paid days off for “sick” or “bereavement” purposes your company already offers.  Example – your company offers three paid bereavement days off,  when the employee uses them, the 2 unpaid PEL bereavement days are also “used up” on the first two paid days.  If the same worker has another death in the family that same year, they would have no remaining bereavement days left on either the paid or unpaid days.

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