The British Columbia government has proposed changes to the province\u2019s Employment Standards Act to allow up to 27 weeks of unpaid leave each year for people facing a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d illness or injury.<\/p>\n
Premier David Eby told a news conference in Victoria that the change would take effect this fall if the bill is passed by his New Democrat majority government.<\/p>\n
The leave would ensure people undergoing treatment such as chemotherapy could take the time they need without being forced to choose between focusing on their health or their job, Eby said on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine anything more challenging or awful than facing a diagnosis of a major, catastrophic health issue like this,\u201d Eby said. \u201cBut knowing your job will be there when you\u2019re completing treatment, when you\u2019re able to return to employment, it\u2019s just one less thing for people to have to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour Minister Jennifer Whiteside joined Eby, saying workers deserve to return to their jobs once their health-care providers confirm they\u2019re ready.<\/p>\n
Whiteside said B.C.\u2019s Human Rights Code prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, but the current employment standards law does not include provisions to protect the jobs of people unable to work due to a long-term illness or injury.<\/p>\n
The proposed changes would ensure the protection in the Human Rights Code is \u201cbuilt in\u201d to the legislation, the minister said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor people facing a difficult diagnosis and maybe well a life-altering situation, whether it\u2019s short term or long term, the certainty of knowing that their job will be there for them provides relief,\u201d Whiteside told the news conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt alleviates an unnecessary burden on their journey to recovery,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Whiteside said survivors of intimate partner violence, many of whom show signs and symptoms of traumatic brain injury, would also be covered by the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that 90 per cent of intimate partner violence cases reported to police involve survivors ages 15 to 54 in their prime working years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor them, the guarantee of job protection may help invite survivors to feel safe in seeking services for their recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 31,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in B.C., Whiteside noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s vital that we provide this important assurance to workers and their families,\u201d Whiteside said of the proposed changes.<\/p>\n
She said the changes would bring B.C.\u2019s legislation in line with standards already in place in other Canadian jurisdictions, including Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, as well as federally regulated industries and workplaces.<\/p>\n
The protection would apply to all workers covered by the Employment Standards Act who have a serious personal illness or injury and who are unable to work for at least seven consecutive days, the Labour Ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The leave would not have to be taken at once and could be broken up throughout the year.<\/p>\n
To access the leave, workers would have to obtain a certificate from a doctor or nurse practitioner saying they are unable to work due to medical reasons.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British Columbia government has proposed changes to the province\u2019s Employment Standards Act to allow up to 27…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-237798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}