Compassionate Care leave – 808-1-IPG-063

Disclaimer: This page has been prepared for reference only.

Effective Date: September 1, 2019

1. Subject

This IPG is intended to clarify and provide guidance on the application of section 206.3 of Part III of the Canada Labour Code (Code) dealing with Compassionate Care leave.

2. Issue

There is a need to describe how Compassionate Care leave is related to:

1. Leave related to critical illness, and
2. Bereavement leave.

3. Guiding principles

a. Compassionate Care leave and Leave related to critical illness

The length of leave is calculated using weeks. A "week" is defined as the period between midnight on Saturday and midnight on the immediately following Saturday.

In a 52-week period and in relation to each family member for whom care and support is provided, an employee may take or more than one employee may share a maximum unpaid leave as follows:

1. Compassionate Care leave: 28 weeks.
2. Leave related to critical illness of a child: 37 weeks.
3. Leave related to critical illness of an adult: 17 weeks.

Where more than one employee is taking the same leave in relation to the same family member, each employee can take leave at any time during the 52-week period, either at the same time or at different times. Their combined periods of leave may not exceed the maximum periods provided under the Code (see paragraph above). For example, if two employees are taking Compassionate Care leave, their combined periods of leave may not exceed a total of 28 weeks in the 52-week period.

Where more than one employee wants to take a leave in relation to the same family member, they cannot take Compassionate Care leave at the same time as a Leave related to critical illness of a child or an adult.

b. Compassionate Care leave and Bereavement leave

Upon the death of a family member, an employee is entitled to bereavement leave of up to five days which may be taken during the period beginning on the date of death and ending six weeks after the date of the next of funeral, burial or memorial service, whichever is later.

If the employee has completed three months of continuous employment with the same employer he is entitled to the first three days paid. If not, he is entitled to an unpaid leave of five days. In the case of Compassionate Care leave and bereavement leave, an employee cannot take these leaves at the same time. As a consequence, the employee must wait until the end of the week of the compassionate care leave and then start the bereavement leave on the following Sunday.

4. Description of the leaves

Division VII of the Code provides employees under federal jurisdiction with leaves which the purposes, length, eligibility criteria and individuals with respect to whom they can be taken vary.

An employee may be entitled to more than one leave for the same event. Each leave is separate and the right to each leave is independent of any right an employee may have to the other leave(s).

The following table describes Compassionate Care leave, Leave related to critical illness and Bereavement leave.

-	Compassionate Care leave	Leave related to critical illness		Bereavement leave
		Child	Adult
Eligibility period	No	No Requirement to complete six consecutive months of continuous employment.		No
Paid leave	No	No	No	Yes Requirement to complete three consecutive months of continuous employment.
Individual with respect to whom the leave can be taken must be a family member	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes Leave must be taken for an immediate family member who dies.
Length of leave within a 52-week period	28 weeks	37 weeks	17 weeks	Not applicable
Leave must be taken in one period	No	Yes	Yes	No Leave can be taken in one or two periods. The employer may ask for these periods to be not less than a day.
Leave can be divided in many periods of not less than one week's duration	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not applicable
Leave can be shared between one or more employees in respect of the same family member	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Certificate issued by the medical doctor or nurse practitioner is required	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not applicable
Medical certificate is valid for the 52-week period	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not applicable
Written notice to the employer must contain reason(s) and length of leave	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not applicable
Four weeks' notice must be provided to the employer if the leave is more than four weeks	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not applicable
Under the employees request, the employer can extend the period to take the leave. A written agreement is required	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	Yes

5. Questions

1. How does Compassionate Care leave work if the employee is taking Leave related to critical illness?
2. How does Compassionate Care leave work if the immediate family member dies during the leave period?

6. Responses

a. How does Compassionate Care leave work if the employee is taking leave related to critical illness?

Paragraphs 206.3(7), 206.4(5) and 207.01 of the Code provides that, in a 52-week period, Compassionate Care leave and Leave related to critical illness can be:

• shared between one or more employees (for the maximum combined leave periods, see Section 3 – Guiding Principles)
• divided in many periods of not less than one week's duration, and
• taken in one consecutive period

Employees are neither required to, nor prevented from, taking their leave at the same time. However, subsection 206.3(7.1) of the Code provides two circumstances in which these leaves cannot be taken at the same time.

Firstly, an employee alone cannot take Compassionate Care leave and Leave related to critical illness at the same time in respect of the same family member. If the employee is eligible to take Compassionate Care leave, the employee must wait for the Leave related to critical illness to end first.

Secondly, more than one employee can share a Leave related to critical illness in respect of the same family member. If these employees are eligible to take Compassionate Care leave for the family member, they must wait until the Leave related to critical illness of all employees ends before starting the other leave.

Appendix A, Section I provides a scenario.

b. How does Compassionate Care leave work if the immediate family member dies during the leave period?

The Code provides that an employee is eligible to take Bereavement leave.

However, Bereavement leave and Compassionate Care leave cannot be taken at the same time as an employee cannot be absent from employment for the purposes of two different leaves at the same time in respect of the same family member. In the event that the immediate family member dies during the Compassionate Care leave period, the employee must wait until the leave ends before taking Bereavement leave.

Appendix A, Section II provides scenarios.

Appendix A

The following scenarios provide guidance on the application of Compassionate Care leave, Leave related to critical illness and Bereavement leave. While each application should be assessed on a case by case basis, length of service and statutory requirements are deemed to be in compliance with the Code.

Legend:

• BL – Bereavement leave
• CC – Compassionate Care leave
• CI – Leave related to critical illness
• Med. Cert. – Medical Certificate
• R – Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code
• Sch – Schedule
• W – Day of regularly scheduled work

Section I: Compassionate Care leave and Leave related to critical illness

Scenario 1

Week 1: Parent 1 and Parent 2 have a five-year-old child who is suffering from a critical illness. On Monday, the medical doctor issues a medical certificate stating that the child is critically ill and requires care and support.

Both parents are eligible to take Leave related to critical illness. Although both parents can take this leave separately, they decide to take their leave at the same time by dividing the 37 weeks. Parent 1 takes 18 weeks and Parent 2 takes 19 weeks.

Week 19: This is Parent 2 last week of Leave related to critical illness. The child’s condition has deteriorated. On Tuesday, the nurse practitioner issues a medical certificate stating that the child is seriously ill and there is a risk of death within 26 weeks. Parent 1 wants to take Compassionate Care leave. For this purpose, Parent 1 must wait until Sunday at midnight when Parent’s 2 Leave related to critical illness ends to be entitled to take Compassionate Care leave since both leaves cannot be taken at the same time for the same child.

Week 20: Parent 1 takes Compassionate Care leave.

Week 46: Parent 1 has been on Compassionate Care leave for 26 consecutive weeks and the child remains seriously ill. Parent 1 wants to take the remaining two weeks of Compassionate Care leave. Since the medical certificate is valid for the entire 52-week period, Parent 1 can take the remaining two weeks without additional proof of eligibility.

However, Parent 1 does need to comply with the notification requirements (see table in Section 4 – Description of the leaves).

Section I: Scenario 1

Week 1

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Schedule	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code
Event	n/a	Medical certificate	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Parent 1	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness
Parent 2	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness

Week 2 to 17

Schedule	Event	Parent 1	Parent 2
n/a	n/a	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness

Week 18

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Schedule	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code
Event	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Parent 1	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness
Parent 2	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness

Week 19

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Schedule	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code
Event	n/a	n/a	Medical certificate	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Parent 1	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Parent 2	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness

Week 20

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Schedule	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code
Event	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Parent 1	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness
Parent 2	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Week 21 to 45

Schedule	Event	Parent 1	Parent 2
n/a	n/a	Leave related to critical illness	n/a

Week 46

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Schedule	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code
Event	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Parent 1	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness
Parent 2	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Week 47

Schedule	Event	Parent 1	Parent 2
n/a	n/a	Leave related to critical illness	n/a

Week 48

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Schedule	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Day of regularly scheduled work	Regularly scheduled day of rest, as per section 173 of the Code
Event	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Parent 1	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness	Leave related to critical illness
Parent 2	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a