i) The Government of Manitoba recently passed amendments to the Employment Standards Code to give victims of domestic violence, who have been employed for at least 90 days, job-protected leave to deal with matters arising from the abuse. The amendments provide for two periods of annual leave: (1) a leave of up to 10 days, which can be taken intermittently or continuously; and (2) a leave of up to 17 weeks, which must be taken continuously. Employees are entitled to be paid for up to five (5) days of the leave; the rest of the leave is unpaid.
ii) A new job-protected leave has been proposed in Ontario. If passed, the Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence Workplace Leave would provide a paid leave of absence of up to ten (10) days per calendar year if an employee or the employee’s child (which is defined as a child, step-child or foster child under 18 years of age) experienced domestic violence or sexual violence. If the employee requires more than 10 days of leave, the employee would be entitled to take a leave for a “prescribed duration”, which has not yet to be defined, or for such time as is reasonable. Any leave over and above 10 days would not be paid. Employers would be entitled to require that the employee provide any evidence reasonable in the circumstances to demonstrate entitlement to the leave.