Summary

This bill amends The Saskatchewan Employment Act to change workplace scheduling, wage protections, sick leave, bereavement leave, and complaint procedures. It allows employers to choose whether a workday is a calendar day or a 24-hour period starting at shift time, extends serious illness leave from 12 to 27 weeks, restricts when employers can request medical certificates, prohibits employers from withholding tips, expands bereavement leave to cover pregnancy loss, and establishes a new complaint process for discriminatory workplace actions.

This bill changes the rules governing Saskatchewan workplaces. Employers will choose whether a workday is measured as a calendar day or a 24-hour shift period, which affects how rest and overtime are calculated. Workers who are seriously ill or injured, or receiving Workers' Compensation, can now be absent for up to 27 weeks in a 52-week period instead of 12 weeks. Employers can only request a doctor's note if the absence exceeds five consecutive working days or if the worker has had two or more non-consecutive sick days in the past year. The bill prohibits employers from keeping or deducting tips from employees, though employers may set up tip pooling arrangements. Bereavement leave is expanded to include pregnancy loss up to 20 weeks before the expected birth date, for the employee, the employee's immediate family, or if the employee would have been a parent. The bill replaces the current complaint process for discriminatory actions with a new system where the director of employment standards can order employers to stop discrimination, reinstate workers, pay lost wages, or remove reprimands, with decisions appealable to an adjudicator. The threshold for group termination notices rises from 10 employees to 25.