[ Updated May 31, 2021 with the WSIB Portal to apply for the benefit ]

VISIT THE WSIB APPLICATION PORTAL

•  Its business registration details such as legal name, trade name, CRA number and bank account details.
• If a WSIB registered employer, its Premium Remittance Statement (Schedule 1 employer) or Monthly Statement (Schedule 2 employer) for details such as the WSIB account number/firm number and last payment details
• Its 6-digit NAICS industry classification code (found here).
• The work site address details (one application per work site address)
• Details of any current paid sick leave coverage already available to employees including number of days of coverage, daily dollar amounts and policy documents.
• Applicable employee details (contact information, address, SIN, date of birth, proof of wage payment via a paystub).

Paid infectious disease emergency leave is available for certain reasons related to COVID-19 including:
 

• going for a COVID-19 test
• staying home awaiting the results of a COVID-19
• being sick with COVID-19
• getting individual medical treatment for mental health reasons related to COVID-19
• going to get vaccinated
• experiencing a side effect from a COVID-19 vaccination
• having been advised to self-isolate due to COVID-19 by an employer, medical practitioner or other specified authority
• providing care or support to certain relatives for COVID-19 related reasons, such as when they are:
  • sick with COVID-19 or have symptoms of COVID-19
  • self-isolating due to COVID-19 on the advice of a medical practitioner or other specified authority

For more information please call the Ontario COVID-19 Worker Income Protection Benefit Information Centre 1-888-999-2248 ( TTY: 1-866-567-8893).

Payment amount

Employers are generally required to pay employees the wages they would have earned had they not taken the leave, up to $200 a day for up to three days. The three days do not have to be taken consecutively. Vacation pay is payable on infectious disease emergency leave pay.

Eligibility

The three days of paid leave are available to employees who are covered by the Employment Standards Act (ESA). Learn more about who is an employee under the ESA.
Independent contractors and federally regulated employees may be entitled to federal income support benefits, including the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CSRB).

Paid leave under existing contract

Employees who have rights to paid leave under their employment contract (which includes a collective agreement) may not be eligible for paid infectious disease emergency leave or may be entitled to fewer than three days of paid infectious disease emergency leave under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA).
In order for an employee’s three-days of ESA paid leave to be reduced, all four of the following criteria must be met.

On April 19, 2021:

1. The employee had the right to a paid leave under their employment contract for one or more of the same reasons that paid infectious disease emergency leave can now be taken under the ESA. 
2. The employee had not already used up those days of paid leave under their employment contract before April 19, 2021 and those days were still remaining.
3. The employee’s employment contract provided pay for the leave that is at least as much pay as the employee would be entitled to receive for paid infectious disease emergency leave under the ESA.
4. The employee’s employment contract did not contain conditions for taking the leave that are more restrictive than what is set out in the ESA for taking paid infectious disease emergency leave.

Where all four of these criteria are met, the employee’s three-day entitlement to paid infectious disease emergency leave under the ESA is reduced by the number of days available under their employment contract that meet the four criteria. 

Proof of entitlement to leave

Employers may require evidence reasonable in the circumstances at a time that is reasonable in the circumstances that the employee is entitled to the leave. What is considered reasonable in the circumstances will depend on all of the facts of the situation. However, employers cannot require an employee to provide a certificate from a doctor or nurse as evidence.  
If it is reasonable in the circumstances, evidence may take many forms, such as:

• a copy of the information issued to the public by a public health official advising of quarantine or isolation
• a copy of an order to isolate that was issued to the employee under s. 22 or s. 35 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act
• an email from a pharmacy or from a public health department indicating the employee’s appointment date and time to receive a COVID-19covid 19 vaccination.

Employer reimbursement for paid leave

Eligible employers are entitled to be reimbursed the amount of infectious disease emergency leave pay that they paid to their employees, up to $200 per employee per day taken.
Eligible employers must make their application for reimbursement to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board within 120 days of the date the employer paid the employee. The ministry is providing funding to the board to administer this program. This program is not a WSIB program and will not be funded by the WSIB’s insurance fund. More information on how employers can apply will be available on this page soon.