New Leaves for Employees under the Canada Labour Code

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As of December 12, 2025, the Canada Labour Code (the “Code”) radically expanded federally regulated employees’ leave rights, while placing additional administrative and compliance responsibilities on their employers.

Federally regulated employees are now entitled to:

  1. New Pregnancy Loss Leave:

 

  1. an employee’s pregnancy, or the pregnancy of their spouse or common-law partner, does not result in a live birth; or

 

  1. a surrogacy does not result in a live birth.

Employees are entitled to up to eight weeks’ paid leave for stillbirths (on or after 20th week of pregnancy).  The first three days of leave are paid, with the remainder of the leave being unpaid.

For other types of pregnancy loss, employees may take up to three days of paid leave.

 

  1. Enhanced Bereavement Leave for Death of a Child:

 

  1. significantly enhanced bereavement leave following the death of a child. What was once a maximum of 10 days’ leave with three of those days being paid has now been increased to eight weeks of unpaid bereavement leave.

 

In addition, these amendments will broaden administrative responsibilities for federally regulated employers relating to all statutory leaves. Employers must now maintain sufficient records supporting leave requests of their employees and ensure paid leave is not improperly included in wage-based calculations. Additionally, employers must revise workplace policies, postings, and internal materials to reflect the updated statutory leave framework.

Failure to comply with these requirements may result in monetary penalties of up to $100,000 for employers.