Hello all,

I have just taken 2 days off work as my daughter is ill ( no family near ).
My employer is great and there is never a problem with this, although it doesn't happen on a regular basis.

I am just wondering what would happen in Canada. As a rule are Canadian employers tolerant of sickness or is it an issue? I have friends in the US and their employers are very strict. My friend in NYC lost a job for having too much time off.

BTW I work with pre-school children so not typical office environment, don't know if that makes a difference?!

Thanks for your time.

Deeny

Depends on the employer. Larger corporations have the capacity to deal with people off sick, some have a sick allowance, many govt employees get sick allowance.

Many smaller business don't make a sick allowance or pay sick days. There is no legislations that provides for sick days. Like any job if a person is unable to perform the job function for whatever reason, there is always the possibility of job loss.

Thanks The Aviator

I don't get paid for sick time and that's fair enough, at least I know I have a job to go back to.

There's just so many things to consider with this move. I guess these are things to discuss if I ever get as far as interviews.

What about statutory sick pay? Surely you get at least that?

It depends on the company policy regarding sick time and special leave(related to sudden illness of a family member or emergency in your home
ie fire,flooded basement and home being broken into).

For the nurses in BC we have on our contract that if a family member
became sick,we can use the special leave and not use our sick time.
Of course there is a limit to the special leave allowed per year.

I am part time and so don't get sick pay. One job it's almost impossible to be off sick, you have to find someone to replace you for that shift. The second job doesn't affect anyone if I am not there, so they would rather I was off sick rather than infecting anyone.

We're not allowed to work if we are sick, but we do get paid for it. If it is a family member, so long as you don't over do it it is usually OK.

No, You have to earn a certain amount/ do a minimum no.of hours to qualify.
I come just under it/them.
I took a break to study and so lost my continuous service benefits, I think SSP was one of them.

Thank you all for your replies.

My kids are generally healthy so I hope it won't be too much of a problem.

I just know what it's like when you move somewhere new, on top of all the stress, your immune system gets a barrage of new germs to deal with. We all had flu within a week of our move to Cambs!

Even in England you need to be off for a number of days to qualify for SSP, or at least you did when I left

I get 10 paid sick days per year. After that I don't get paid unless its a serious illness where i'm liable to be off work for a while.

Hope this helps!

Hey

I know of many in Canada (Vancouver) who have a given amount of sick leave, and basically you can use it as you need. This person was told in her first year here that basically it's used as holiday....

It is well known that on good snow days you'll find the office empty as eveyone has gone up to the slopes!!!

I've had 2 sick days (one for interview btw, and the other as I was genuinly ill) and my employer has been fine. It doesn't seem to be viewed as negatively here as it was in the UK. That is my experience from my office alone.

I'm sure you'll be fine.

Bx

Thanks again,

compchris- yes, that does help- cheers.

bandit- that's reassuring, although given my appalling lack of coordination, if I ever took a day off to hit the slopes I would probably need some genuine sick time after!



Deeny x