Workers are now able to take up to eight weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to care for a dying family member or a close, family-like friend, the Alberta government announced Feb. 1.
Once the compassionate care leave period has passed, employees will be able to return to their workplace – similar to mothers returning after a maternity leave.
Previously, employees were able to apply for six weeks of Employment Insurance (E.I.) benefits for compassionate care but were not given job-security. That left many people without a job upon their return, said Anna Mann, executive director for the Alberta Caregiver Association.
“For us it’s a really big thing because it’s one of the first times where we’ve seen support for caregivers and it’s not really focused on the care recipient,” she said. “It means that people are actually able to take time off and don't have to worry whether or not they’ll have a job when their care journey is over.”
To qualify for compassionate care leave, the family member must have worked at least 52 weeks for their employer and provide a certificate signed by the attending physician regarding the grave condition of the family member and their need of care.
The eight-week leave can be split into two sections and must be taken within a 26-week period. It the family member does not pass away, the employee may take another leave within the next 26 weeks, provided that he gives another notice and has a new physician certificate.
The definition of “family member” includes a wide range of people, from spouse to stepbrother, niece or nephew, foster parent or a person to whom the person is not related but whom he or she considers like a close relative.
That makes it easier to care for an aging population where many people may not have a family member to look after them, said Mann.
“We are just at the beginning of the increase of the big need for caregivers and something that we have seen as well is that families are smaller now,” she said. “So there are fewer people to provide care for someone than there used to be.”
Alberta is the last province to implement compassionate care leave in Canada.
Last year, about 500 people in the province used compassionate care E.I. benefits to care for dying relatives. Yet between 80 to 90 per cent of care in the community is still provided by family members, and 28 per cent of Canadians over 15 are caregivers, said Mann.
But employers shouldn't worry about losing more workers now, she added.
“There hasn’t been a huge increase in the number of people who take time off because of compassionate care leave in other provinces,” she said, adding that there is still a need for greater support for caregivers looking after family members who are not gravely ill.
“A lot of these people are sick for a number of years. So in one way it doesn’t go far enough,” she said.
Lynda Moffat, CEO and president of the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce said she did not receive any complaints from business owners regarding the new bill. She said businesses have adapted in the past to giving their workers time off for other personal matters, such as a maternity leave.
But it does put a strain on smaller businesses to lose workers for a short period of time, she said.
“Every business is challenged at these times of strong economic growth going on in the area. We are always challenged with our number of employees,” she said. “But overall I think there’s a good understanding on behalf of the business owners that it is good for their workers.”
Mann said the association finds that employers are still not informed enough about their having to support caregivers or finding ways of supporting them.
While not everyone is willing to let an employee leave to look after an ill relative who is not gravely ill, she suggests that there are other ways of supporting them.
“It might be a matter of making their work hours more flexible or letting them work from home,” she said. “There are other ways of accommodating that and not all caregivers necessarily want to leave paid employment.”
