There are several changes made to the Saskatchewan Employment Act effective January 1, 2026. Included is a summary of what is changing. Please do your own research and adjust for your own business. To ensure your business is compliant, Action Items are included to help guide what to do.
Work Schedules & Overtime
As an employer, you can choose whether a “workday” is a calendar day (midnight–midnight) or a 24-hour period for scheduling and overtime calculations.
Action Items:
- Decide how your company defines a workday (calendar day vs. 24-hour period)
- Confirm overtime calculations align with what you decide
- Update scheduling or payroll procedures if needed
- Update appropriate policies on schedules and overtime
- Communicate with all staff the definition of workday for your business
Tips & Gratuities
Employers can no longer withhold, deduct, or reclaim employee tips. Tip pooling can happen, but only under regulated conditions. The Amendment isn’t clear on what the regulated conditions are so if this applies to you, further research is needed.
Action Items:
- Review what you are currently doing with tips and tip pooling
- Confirm no deductions, withholding, or reclaiming of tips
- Document how tips are distributed and communicate to your staff
Sick Notes & Absences
Regarding an employee’s absence due to illness or injury or illness or injury of a member of the employee’s immediate family who is dependent on the employee, an employer cannot take discriminatory action against an employee for the above absences. You can only ask for a medical note when the employee has been off more than five consecutive workdays or has had two separate absences of two or more days in the past 12 months.
Action Items:
- Update policies on when medical notes are allowed and train managers who have direct reports
- Tighten up absence tracking to reflect the new standards
- Ensure procedures of “automatic sick note” practices no longer happen
Expanded Leave Provisions
Several statutory leaves are being expanded or clarified. Review the Amendment along with the full Saskatchewan Employment Act.
Long term illness or injury leave is extended from 12 weeks to 27 weeks in a 52-week period. That means, for a serious illness or injury, an employee’s job is protected for up to 27 weeks in any rolling 52-week period. Exceptions were added if an employee is on Worker’s Compensation Benefits as well. .
Interpersonal/sexual violence leave is expanded to include unpaid leave of up to 16 weeks for one continuous period or the current 10 days which the employee can take intermittently.
Bereavement leave is more flexible and includes pregnancy loss. An employee can take up to five days for the death of an immediate family member or someone to be like immediate family, including the death of a pregnancy. The leave can be taken up to six months after a death.
Action Items:
- Revise current illness/injury leave policy to reflect the new entitlements
- Update bereavement leave timing and eligibility
- Update interpersonal/sexual violence leave provisions
- Add pregnancy loss to personal leave policy
Other changes made to the Act:
- The Director of Employment Standards can now order reinstatement and compensation if an employer takes discriminatory action against someone for using their employment rights such as taking a leave.
- The threshold for group termination notice increases from 10 employees to 25 employees.
Reference is directly from the Government of Saskatchewan website summarizing the changes. You can search for the publication and get a free PDF copy of the Amendments to the Act. Supporting Businesses and Workers Through Amendments to Employment Standards | News and Media | Government of Saskatchewan