8 replies to this topic

[Northern Ontarian]

Hello,
Wondering what our rights are for sick leave in Ontario, all I could find online was for employers with 50+ employees but nothing about smaller employers.
Wondering if my job is safe if I take sick leave for treatments.
Thank you.

[orchid]

Do you need to go on sick leave on medical grounds or is it impractical time wise to make it to your appointments due to distance? Is the nature of your job physically demanding?

The first thing I would do is get a hold of the benefit plan that your company has. That should clear up what your entitlements are ... how much of your salary you'd be getting (can range from 65 percent to full salary) and for how many weeks. You'd want to know what the financial hit would be if you went on sick leave. If you don't have benefits through your work, I am not certain that you would get EI through the government.

Either way, a doctor would need to write you a note basically saying that on medical grounds you are unable to work.

From my experience though, I was able to avoid taking sick leave and used 4 vacation days in total for my IVF cycle. With that said though, I live 20 mins from my clinic and I sit all day.

The question on whether your job is safe: you can not be fired due to illness, however I have worked in HR departments where people that go on sick leave are frowned upon and it could be a career limiting move in some organizations. So, it really depends on the culture of the company you work for and whether they'd risk litigation if they wrongfully dismiss you once you are back from sick leave.

[Northern Ontarian]

Thank you for your honest reply.

My company has sick days but no short term disability benefits. I contacted EI and was told I must exaust all those days first (I only have a few left anyway).

I am requesting medical leave for medical grounds as well as the unpractical-ness (is that even a word??) as our clinic is 1.5 hours + away.

We do not have an "HR department" but a manager that fulfills the HR/payroll duties. She and my immediate supervisor were very supportive, and actually suggested time off, although this may change when they find out I'll actually be taking time off.

[sprbaby]

My clinic is also 1.5h from my work, and during my IVF cycle I basically took 18 days off. I have a very flexible and accommodating job, so I could work from home somewhat, and got someone to cover for me for some other things. This factors into planning my next retrieval cycle as well. My clinic offered a medical note if I needed one, and every medical note I've ever seen did not disclose anything about your treatment or condition, however it does have the doctor's name so it doesn't take much to find out what kind of practice they run and "guess" someone's condition when it's a specialist.

[gibasgirl]

I had someone google the doctor. So even though my note made no mention of the medical reason, or the doctor's specialty (I asked the doctor to use something other than their formal letterhead), thinking that would be enough to give me privacy.

Unfortunately not.

They looked up the doctor and talked to me about it. I got "feedback."

Yes that was wrong.
No, they were not supposed to do that but they did and there is no undo button when one's privacy is violated.

[Bubby99]

Hello,
Wondering what our rights are for sick leave in Ontario, all I could find online was for employers with 50+ employees but nothing about smaller employers.
Wondering if my job is safe if I take sick leave for treatments.
Thank you.

I work for a very large organization so we have personal/sick and vacation and I don't have disclose anything and I submit dr notes to an impartial 3rd party so my boss never sees anything, I'm very lucky.
I couldn't find an answer to your question but it's within your rights to call the ministry of labour and ask
http://www.labour.go...dback/index.php

GG what happened to you is awful and you can actually file a complaint...that's really unfair that someone nosed around and looked into your perusal info. Sorry.

[gibasgirl]

No, I cannot because the person I would have to report to is the person who did it.

[Bubby99]

No, I cannot because the person I would have to report to is the person who did it.

That's really too bad.  I think you can submit an anonymous complaint but it sounds like it would be easily figured out that it was you...sorry about that, it's really sad when these things happen and employees are not able to protect their rights b/c they fear retaliation from their company or boss.  It's completely wrong.  

[CdnHockeyGal]

So grateful this thread is here...my DH just got asked to come in on a regular day off for a special project...same day as we're supposed to be in the States for ivf...was totally pre-armed and prepared with "we're dealing with a non-life threatening medical issue"...love it...thank you all for the major stress relief!