Effective January 1, 2022, the BC government has implemented five (5) days of mandatory paid sick leave for all workers in BC.
The new legislative sick leave, passed in the Employment Standards Amendment Act (Bill 13), applies to certain employees at UBC, as outlined below. If you are not eligible for legislative sick leave, use your paid sick leave (if available) to cover time off for illness.
Eligible roles
Employees who do not accrue sick leave (such as student employees and non-credit instructors). These employees will have access 90 days after their employment starts.
Employees who accrue sick leave monthly. With the legislative sick leave, on January 1 of each year, these employees will be advanced the first five (5) days (adjusted based on full-time equivalency (FTE)) of sick leave for the calendar year. These employees will accrue sick leave as normal.
The following roles are eligible for legislative sick leave:
- Non-Union Technicians
- Executive Administrative
- Farm Workers
- Management & Professional staff, Excluded Management & Professional staff, Service Unit Directors, and Executive roles in their first year of employment
Ineligible roles
The Employment Standards Act (ESA) contains certain provisions captured by a “meet or exceed” test for employees who are members of a trade union. Section 3(2) of the ESA specifies that where a collective agreement already contains similar provisions that “meet or exceed the requirements, when considered together,” the collective agreement provisions replace those of the ESA entirely.
The following roles are not eligible for legislative sick leave due to existing collective agreement or other coverage:
- BCGEU (UBCO)
- BCGEU (Child care)
- CUPE 116
- CUPE 116 (Aquatic Centre)
- CUPE 2278
- CUPE 2950
- IUOE 115
- Faculty Association
In addition, certain sick leave plans for employees are sufficient to meet the ESA requirements at all time and the ESA sick leave is considered incorporated into their existing sick leave plans. The roles are:
- Management & Professional staff, Excluded Management & Professional staff, Service Unit Directors, and Executive roles not in their first year of employment
Understanding your balance in Workday
Legislative sick leave is shown in hours in Workday as Legislative Sick Time Off, based on how many hours you would work in 5 days at your current FTE (e.g., full-time, part-time). Employees who are eligible for both paid sick leave and legislative sick leave will have their annual paid sick entitlement split between these two absence types in Workday. These employees may have a negative paid sick time off balance at the start of the calendar year due to 5 days (based on FTE) of this time being under legislative leave time off. The total annual entitlement to sick leave has not changed. The total accrued will still be fifteen (15) days for a full-time employee but split between the two sick banks to ensure that we are compliant with the ESA.
An exception to this is for hourly staff and student employees:
- Hourly staff will have their Legislative Sick Time Off calculated based on .5 FTE even though they have a 1.0 FTE in Workday because their sick leave has been adjusted based on the average number of hours they work.
- Hourly student employees will have their Legislative Sick Time Off calculated based on 1.0 FTE as they typically work full-time hours during their term appointment.
Using legislative sick leave
For assistance entering absences in Workday, view the Workday Knowledge Base Article Request Time Off or visit the UBC Self Service Portal for Workday support.