H1N1 and your workplace

Issued: October 30, 2009
Content Last Reviewed: October 2009

This guide is for convenience only. To determine your rights and duties under the law, refer to the relevant acts and regulations: Employment Standards | Occupational Health and Safety

Information for workers
Information for employers
Coping with the flu - useful links

Information for workers

Your health and safety rights during a flu outbreak

An outbreak of flu does not affect your workplace rights.

As a worker in Ontario, you always have the right to work in a safe and healthy environment. The Occupational Health and Safety Act gives you certain fundamental rights, including:

your “right to know” about any potential hazards to which you may be exposed
your “right to participate,” that is, to be involved in identifying and resolving workplace health and safety concerns, and (with some exceptions).
your “right to refuse” unsafe work

Workers in certain occupations such as those responsible for public safety – fire fighters, police, correctional officers and health care workers, for example – have a limited right to refuse work; they can not refuse unsafe work if the alleged danger is considered to be a normal part of the job or if the refusal would endanger the health or safety of another person.

If you think that one of your co-workers has flu, talk to your supervisor, the Joint Health and Safety Committee (if there is one), or your health and safety representative.

If you believe that your workplace is unsafe because of a communicable disease, explain your concerns to your supervisor or joint health and safety committee representative.

Staff of the Ministry of Labour and workplace health and safety associations can provide guidance in addressing workplace health and safety concerns.

Health care facilities

Workers in health care facilities who are required to use protective clothing or equipment must be instructed and trained in its care, use and limitations:

before wearing or using it for the first time, and
at regular intervals thereafter.

Workers who are required to wear NIOSH-approved N95 respirators should be fit-tested at least every two years.

Your employment rights during a flu outbreak

Employees with concerns about the workplace should first raise any concerns with their employer, union or health and safety representative to discuss available options. These options may include unpaid leave or sick leave.

Personal emergency leave

Employees’ jobs may be protected by the personal emergency leave provision of the Employment Standards Act .

Under the Employment Standards Act, employees who work for a company with more than 50 employees have the right to take up to 10 days of unpaid job-protected leave each year with respect to illness, injury and certain other emergencies and urgent matters.

Personal emergency leave can be taken because of personal illness, injury or medical emergency, or the death, illness, injury, medical emergency or urgent matter relating to specified family members, such as a school closure caused by flu.

If you take a personal emergency leave, you must advise your employer as soon as possible. Your employer may require you to provide reasonable evidence that you are eligible for the leave.

Generally, employers have the right to schedule paid vacations for their employees. An employer could decide to schedule a vacation period for one or more employees at any time, including during a period of influenza outbreak. If, you are already on personal emergency leave, the employer cannot convert the leave into a period of vacation time.

More information on personal emergency leave.

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Information for employers

An outbreak of disease such as H1N1 flu does not change your responsibilities for workplace health and safety and for meeting employment standards.

Reasonable precautions

You have a duty to take every reasonable precaution to protect the health and safety of your workers. You must, therefore:

determine the measures you need to put in place to protect your workers from infectious diseases, including the H1N1 flu virus
inform, instruct and supervise workers so as to protect their health and safety.

Here are the requirements for reporting illnesses in health care workplaces: