Keeping your job: leaves, EI and your rights at work

Farah Haddad is forty-seven, a process engineer at an auto plant in Windsor. Her mother, Samira, is seventy-eight and has been in hospital for a week after a serious heart problem, and the doctors are talking about a long recovery. Last night, at one in the morning, Farah wrote a resignation letter. It's sitting in her drafts folder. She hasn't sent it.

So here's the question. Before anyone quits, what time off does the law protect, what does EI pay, and what can you ask your employer for?

This is general information, not legal advice. Ontario's Employment Standards Act gives several unpaid, job-protected leaves. Family caregiver leave is up to eight weeks a year for each family member with a serious medical condition. Family medical leave is up to twenty-eight weeks in a fifty-two week period, when a family member has a significant risk of death within twenty-six weeks. Critical illness leave is up to seventeen weeks for a critically ill adult.

There's also family responsibility leave, three days a year for an urgent family matter. Some leaves need a certificate, and some need a minimum time on the job. They can be combined, and your employer can't punish you for taking them. Details are at the Employment Standards Information Centre, 1-800-531-5551. At a federally regulated employer, like a bank or airline, check the federal rules instead.

The leave protects the job. The money comes from EI. Its caregiving benefits pay 55% of your earnings, up to $729 a week in 2026. That's up to fifteen weeks to care for a critically ill adult, or up to twenty-six weeks for someone at the end of life. Expect a one-week waiting period before payments start.

To qualify, you generally need six hundred insured hours, your weekly earnings must drop by more than 40%, and a doctor or nurse practitioner certifies the condition. Beyond leave, Ontario's Human Rights Code protects family status, and that includes caring for an aging parent. Employers have a duty to accommodate, within limits. If you hit a wall, get legal advice.

And the research is steadying. A review by University of Toronto researchers found most caregivers keep working. It's the ones carrying the heaviest load who tend to leave. In the Ontario Caregiver Organization's 2025 online survey, 41% had thought about quitting. That's an advocacy group's own survey, not a random sample, but it shows how common the thought is.

Now, their side. Samira spent years watching her daughter build this career. It's fair to guess she may not want to be the reason Farah gives it up. Many parents in her position would feel guilty, not grateful. Farah might ask her, what would you want for me here? The answer may make it easier to take leave instead of quitting.

Let's change one fact. Farah runs her own engineering consultancy. Now there's no employer to grant leave, and EI caregiving benefits only work for self-employed people who opted in to EI at least twelve months earlier and meet an earnings test. So if you're self-employed and see caregiving coming, look into opting in early, not in the middle of a crisis.

The mistake families make is quitting first. In a crisis, a resignation feels like the one clean answer. But once you've quit, the job protection is gone, and so is the paycheque you may need later.

Here's the rule, in one breath. Take the leave, claim the EI, ask for accommodation, and decide about quitting later, once the crisis has passed.

This week, find your employer's leave policy and note which leave fits your situation. Next time, a new module on the care system, starting with home care and Ontario Health atHome.