Ben Parkin Joins HEL and New Rules Restricting Requiring Doctor’s Notes Issued
Howard Employment Law, together with its Alliance Partner firm Ascent Employment Law, are delighted to announce that Ben Parkin, recently retired General Counsel for WorkSafe BC, has joined HEL as associate counsel. Ben first joined WorkSafe in 1994 where he ultimately rose through the ranks to General Counsel in 2024, with a stint as Assistant Director, Legal Services at the City of Vancouver from 2002 to 2015.
Ben is one of Canada’s leading experts in all aspects of the WorkSafe system, from constitutional issues through rate-setting to claims. He has appeared in many lawsuits at all levels of tribunals as the head lawyer representing WorkSafe and the City of Vancouver, including three appearances in the Supreme Court of Canada. As Associate Counsel at HEL, Ben is available on an “as needed” basis as an expert resource to help our employer clients who are dealing with WorkSafe claims, compliance issues or accident investigations. Well versed in “judicial review” (i.e. review by the Courts) of all types of administrative agency or tribunal decisions, he can be an advisor to the existing legal team or act as primary litigation counsel. WorkSafe claimants can also benefit from Ben’s unparalleled knowledge of WorkSafe’s policies and case law.
You can contact Ben here: bparkin@howardlaw.ca; 604 454-4380.
New Rules re Doctors’ Notes
Regular readers of our Alerts will recall we wrote about an Employment Standards Act amendment empowering the government to limit when employers can demand “sick notes” from medical practitioners (see HERE). The actual rule was just published and made effective November 12, 2025:
Employers may not require a sick note from a medical practitioner for the first two sick absences of 5 days or less in each year.
In effect, in most cases, sick leaves of under a week can only be verified by other methods such as requiring a signed formal declaration of incapacity or a receipt for treatment or medication. While for the reasons discussed in our first Alert, doctors rarely act as a screen on false or exaggerated claims of illness, the effort required to get an appointment and note and the possibility of an embarrassing conversation with a skeptical doctor probably did act as a deterrent to some sick leave abuse. Unfortunately, the burden on our overtaxed medical system was just too great relative to that marginal benefit to employers and, for some employees without access to a GP, just getting the note was stressful and could entail leaving home with an infectious flu or cold. Let’s hope patients can get a doctor’s appointment just a little more easily as a result of this change.
Recommended Action:
- Change policies and inform managers of the new rule.
- Consider requiring employees who heavily use or are suspected of abuse of sick leave to provide other proof of sickness or injury (see above).
If you want more information on this topic, you can contact us at:
Geoffrey Howard: ghoward@howardlaw.ca
604 424-9686
Sebastian Chern: schern@howardlaw.ca
604 424-9688
