B.C. changes law to stop employers from asking for ‘unnecessary’ doctor sick notes

British Columbia is changing its employment standards legislation to stop employers from asking employees for “unnecessary” sick notes, the province’s labour minister says.

Jennifer Whiteside said Tuesday that the move is aimed at allowing health care workers to attend to patients and not spend time on the “administrative burden” of providing workers with sick notes to justify “short-term absences 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 Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Health 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 as 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, with the association estimating that B.C. doctors wrote about 1.6 million sick notes last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2025.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press