COVID-19 Updates News Labour People
B.C. allows employees three hours to receive vaccine shot

British Columbia is allowing employees up to three hours of paid leave to receive each dose of their COVID-19 vaccine.

According to Western Labour Agriculture Initiative (WALI), this also applies to temporary foreign workers,

Announced last week, this amendment to the Employment Standards Amendment Act is retroactive to April 19. It ensures that no employee will lose pay if they need time away from work to get vaccinated. Both full-time and part-time employees can take up to three hours of paid leave per dose.

Additional information is available on the Employment Standards Branch website.

According to BC Ministry of Labour, the legislation improves on the regulatory change made on April 1, 2021, that provides unpaid job-protected leave for workers to take the time they need to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This unpaid leave remains in place to supplement the new paid time off, for example to accompany dependant family members to get vaccinated or in the event a worker needs more than three hours of paid leave to travel to their vaccine appointment.