Under GSU’s collective agreements with various employers, provisions exist for modest periods of paid leaves of absence to enable employees to attend to personal or family emergencies, support, or care situations without suffering a loss of pay. Depending on the circumstances, the leave may be provided by the employer as additional paid time or the absence might be charged to an employees accrued sick leave.

The type of paid leave applicable to a situation depends on the circumstances and the wording of the collective agreement. However, the common thread running through the various forms of paid leave is that the trigger is usually an event or set of circumstances requiring the employees presence and/or preventing their attendance at work.

Although the collective agreements and policies vary from employer to employer, generally speaking paid time away from work for rest and recuperation is covered by earned vacation or banked overtime. There is no other pool of general purpose paid days off work unless the collective agreement or an employer policy specifically allows for same.

When in doubt check your collective agreement and follow up with a GSU staff rep.