FortisBC-CSC – ESA Sick Days

As many of you are aware, as of January 1, 2022, the Employment Standards Act (ESA) requires all employers to provide five days of sick leave with pay to all employees after 90 consecutive days of employment.

Because your collective agreement provisions for sick days are superior to this benefit, they supersede ESA for those members who qualify for them, meaning once you pass your 975 hours of probation you get access to your sick leave entitlement under Article 10 instead of these ESA sick days.

However, FBC CSC members will still qualify for the ESA sick days if they are FTR, PTR, or UPTR and have been employed for 90 days or longer, and have not yet worked the 975 hours that they need to qualify for sick leave under Article 10. Once your revised collective agreement has been finalized you will find this provision under Articles 19.03, 19.04(b)(vi), and Letter of Understanding #7.

Due to administrative difficulties caused by ESA sick days being allocated based on the January to December calendar year, but health and sick leave in your collective agreement renewing mid-year, the employer has sought flexibility in paying these days out. All ESA sick days taken in 2022 were paid out in January of 2023, and the employer assured us that once the new collective agreement was ratified, they would pay out whatever days had been taken from January 1, 2023, until the date of ratification.

In bargaining, the parties agreed to resolve these administrative issues going forward by changing the renewal date of sick leave in the collective agreement so that it was the same as ESA: January 1 of each year. However, being that bargaining dragged significantly into 2023, the employer once again asked for a reprieve so that they could settle all outstanding ESA sick days on the same day that sick leave entitlements under Article 10 renewed: January 1, 2024. This was partly out of concern that if a member were to take their 5 ESA-mandated sick days, and then qualify for sick leave under Article 10 and use it up, they may end up having taken more than their 15-week entitlement at the end of the year. If this were to happen, the employer would have to claw back some amount of sick pay in order to recover the overpayment.

Despite the employer’s concerns, we did not agree to any further deferral of payment for ESA sick days taken so far in 2023. The employer has told us to expect that they will be paid out in full on Thursday, August 3, 2023.

Be advised that any members who find themselves in situations such as the one above may be subject to some repayment of sick leave entitlements at the end of the year. We have informed the employer that we reserve the right to grieve on a case-by-case basis if we disagree with the rationale for any of these repayments.

In solidarity,

Paul Voykin
Union Representative