Recent changes to the Employment Standards Act have removed the need for workers to get sick notes for short-term absences from work.
Labour Minister Jennifer Whiteside has introduced Bill 11, amending the Employment Standards Act. This was done to help alleviate the bureaucratic burden on BC's health-care practitioners by clarifying when sick notes can be requested by employers, the ministry announced Tuesday, April 15.
"When you're sick, the last thing you should have to do is go to your doctor or a medical clinic in order to get a piece of paper saying you're sick," Whiteside said. "Not only is that difficult for a sick person to do, but it doesn't help you get better any faster or prevent the spread of illness."
The act currently requests the act allows employers to request "reasonably sufficient proof" that an employee is sick. The changes ushered in by Whiteside will clarify that employers can't request, and employees are not required to provide, a sick note written by any medical practitioner, at least in the short term.
"We've heard clearly from doctors around the province that unnecessary paperwork robs them of valuable time to see their patients," said Health Minister Josie Osborne. "Eliminating sick notes for short-term absences is just one of the actions we are taking to cut administrative burden, make our system more efficient, and free up health professionals to focus on what they do best — providing care to British Columbians."
Regulations are currently being established with stakeholders to define how many days is considered a short-term absence and how often an employee may be absent before their employer can request a formal sick note. The regulation will be implemented before respiratory illness season in fall 2025.
As well as removing the need for short-term sick notes, the regulation update includes replacing fax and paper-based processes with digital systems, streamlining referral processes, consolidating and standardizing forms and improving information-sharing between providers, the province's announcement states.
The Canadian Medical Association estimates that in 2024, BC doctors wrote approximately 1.6 million sick notes, and estimates that physicians across Canada spend between 10 and 19 hours each week on paperwork, including sick notes.
