I am presently on STD and plan to litigate during LTD. I had a few back and forths with my employer about what leave options I have while I’m suing my insurer.
They informed me that I can take unpaid leave (up to XX days) and use up my vacation during this time. That said, what happens after I exhaust both of these? Do employers simply get the denial letter from the insurer and the insurer tells them the claimant is suing? Does the employer just put the employee on indefinite unpaid leave during this time?
Yes if your doctor says you can’t work they have a duty to accommodate the the point of undue hardship regardless of whatever insurance you may or may not have…
Provide a doctors note to your employer that you are unable to work at this time. Request that since you are unable to work that you use your banked vacation time untill it runs out.
When your banked vacation runs out ask employer to provide you with a record of employment (ROE). This ROE document needs to be created by the employer anytime an employee experiences an interuption of employment insurable earnings. The reason on the ROE will need to be “unpaid sick leave” or “disability”, etc.
The ROE is the key document you will need to apply for EI sickness benefits when your vacation time runs out. EI sickness benefit payments last up to 26 weeks to a max of $668 per week.
As stated by Caro as long as you have the support of your doctor your employer is bound by law to hold your job unless it causes them undue hardship, which is almost impossible for an employer to make a case for.
Record of Employee should be acronym ROE, not EOR. ROE is part of common terminology used by Service Canada and other similar government organizations.