Changes to British Columbia's employment standards legislation to no longer allow employers to require sick notes for short term absences are welcome after a decade of advocacy, says Doctors of BC president Dr. Charlene Lui.
"This is an issue that Doctors of BC has spent more than 10 years advocating for, and it is part of our broader effort to reduce overall administrative burden for doctors," Lui said Tuesday.
She said the group is "very pleased" that the province has moved to eliminate the need for employees to get "routine sick notes" for short-term absences from work.
British Columbia's labour and health ministries announced Tuesday that changes would be made to the province's Employment Standards Act, which will stop employers from asking employees for "unnecessary" sick notes, Labour Minister Jennifer Whiteside said.
Whiteside said the move will allow health care workers to attend to patients and not spend time on the "administrative burden" of providing workers with sick notes to justify staying home from work.
"We have heard loud and clear that they are spending far too much of their valuable time on paperwork," Whiteside said at a news conference. "Not only does it create extra work for doctors and nurses, but the last thing a person who is sick should have to do is get out of bed and go to a clinic."
The ministries said in a statement that the current law allows employers to request proof of sickness from employees, but the changes will "clarify" that workers are not required to provide sick notes for short-term absences.
Health Minister Josie Osborne said doctors across B.C. have indicated that dealing with "unnecessary paperwork" like sick notes takes up time they could be using to care for patients.
Osborne said making people leave home for sick notes can "can often do more harm than good," by spreading illnesses and delaying their recovery, while "making it harder for people who have more urgent issues to be able to see their health care provider."
The ministries said the new regulations will establish what constitutes a short-term absence, and they're set to be in place before respiratory illness season begins this fall.
The changes come after both the Canadian Medical Association and Doctors of BC advocated for sick note requirements to be eliminated last year
The association estimates that B.C. doctors wrote about 1.6 million sick notes last year.
Lui said she suspects the changes were made in recognition of current inefficiencies in accessing family physicians, and the time they spent on paperwork rather than care.
She said employers may have been "quite concerned" about employees using sick days inappropriately, but disallowing them from requiring notes "is a big move in the right direction."
Lui said there are some circumstances where sick notes are appropriate, such as "prolonged absences" where a doctor "can provide some meaningful insight into an employee's condition.
Lui said workers who catch the common cold, however, shouldn't be made to leave home to get a note for a few days off work to recover.
"Those are the circumstances where we don't see the value of requiring a sick note," she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2025.