Majority of Manitobans in favour of ending sick note practice: Doctors Manitoba

Doctors Manitoba says there is overwhelming support to end the practice of sick notes. CTV’s Danton Unger has the latest.

The time is now for Manitoba to stop employers from requiring staff to get a sick note for a few days off because they’re sick.

This is the message from Doctors Manitoba, an advocacy group for Manitoba physicians.

“This is a time waster,” said Dr. Randy Guzman, Doctors Manitoba president.

“Manitoba has the biggest shortage of family doctors in Canada. We’re dead last, and it’s vital that we all work together to free as much of their time as possible for patient care.”

Thursday it released an ‘encouraging’ survey of Manitobans and their employers, which found there is overwhelming support (87 per cent of Manitobans and 84 per cent of employers) to get rid of the practice completely.

Those statistics jump to 96 per cent and 95 per cent respectively, when you add in the respondents who agree sick notes should be eliminated or limited.

Doctors Manitoba defined a sick note as ‘a document written by a doctor to verify an illness or injury that results in a short-term absence from work, school or other institution.’ The group believes sick notes only exist to verify that someone is sick but are not effective at even doing that. A recent report from the Joint Task Force on Reducing Administrative Burdens for Physicians said one in every three patients that come in for a sick note have no symptoms.

Doctors Manitoba wants provincial legislation passed to ban sick notes, not just limit them or pass the administrative work onto someone else.

“I think it still boils down to the doctor’s office time,” said Guzman. “I think if you can eliminate them, that’s probably a cleaner and more effective solution.”

Doctors Manitoba estimates eliminating sick notes would free up 300,000 appointments yearly - that is equal to adding more than 50 doctors to the system immediately.

There is no mention of short-term time off due to illness under Manitoba’s Employment Standards Code. A physician’s certificate is required under the code for long-term leave due to injury or illness, leave related to critical illness, unpaid leave for organ donation, compassionate care leave and maternity leave.

Manitoba and Alberta are the only two provinces that have not taken any steps towards limiting sick notes, according to Doctors Manitoba.

‘Ultimately a culture change’

One employer that isn’t waiting for provincial legislation to ban sick notes for short-term illness is the Interlake Eastern Regional Health Authority (IERHA).

‘We’ve just basically put in a policy that says, up to that two-week mark, you don’t need to provide a sick note,” said Julene Sawatzky, the IERHA executive lead for Human Resources.

“Your manager will not ask you for a sick note unless it’s coming from HR.”

The IERHA employs about 3,500 people.

“So whether you’re a nurse, a health-care aide or maintenance worker, or you work in the kitchen, or whoever, whatever your role is, it applies to all of you,” she said.

Sawatzky said the idea came after attending a Doctors Manitoba event, which explained the administrative burden sick notes create for physicians.

“We feel like we can lead the way by health system staff not having to contribute to that burden.”

Sawatzky explained the old IERHA policy didn’t provide the type of parameters the new one does, which took effect in January.

“It’s ultimately a culture change. It’s a change in habits,” she said. “We’re so used to going and asking for those sick notes. Whether you think you’re protecting yourself or your employer, it’s a significant shift.”

So far in 2025, Sawatzky said there has been a steep decline in the number of sick notes brought in by employees. In previous years, the HR department would get hundreds.

“We see that as an encouraging sign and we’re not hearing complaints about it.”

Sawatzky said this policy change is also a chance for employers to rebuild workplace culture and address absentee issues without putting the physician in the middle.

“I do see this as a real opportunity to build trust amongst teams, and of course, that’s going to take time.”

Southern Health-Santé Sud told CTV News it does not require medical notes for short-term illnesses/sick time with the exception of some collective agreements that still require these in some situations.

A WRHA spokesperson told CTV News, “For short-term illnesses or sick time, the Winnipeg Health Region does not demand sick notes, unless required under applicable collective bargaining agreements for unionized staff or under specific individual circumstances.”

The policy is similar in the Northern Health Region.

CTV News has not yet heard back from Prairie Mountain Health.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the province is looking at the sick note burden issue.

“We know that doctors want to spend their time at the bedside, providing the best care possible to Manitobans,” they said. “That’s a really important area of health care that we know needs to be addressed. I’ve been having conversations with the Minister of Labour on this.”

‘Our first reaction should be compassion’

Tory McNally, vice president of professional services at Legacy Bowes, said right now in Manitoba individual employers can decide whether to require sick notes - sometimes they’re written into policies, and other times they’re in collective agreements.

“The normal practice is that if an employee is absent from work for three days (or) five days, an employer might ask for the employee to get proof of that absence with a doctor’s note,” she said.

By requiring a sick note, McNally said employers are looking for concrete proof that an absence was legitimate.

“We’re realizing as employers that it’s not actually serving as the true evidence document that we need it to be, and maybe there’s a better way.”

McNally said from talking to doctors she’s learned sick notes aren’t proof at all because doctors believe symptomless patients who say they felt sick at one point, and they’re also a waste of a physicians' time and taxpayers' dollars.

“It really starts to hit home how important it is to abolish them.”

McNally said sick notes are also not useful for employers and often just get put in the employee’s file.

Generally, McNally feels employers are on board to eliminate short-term sick notes. However, she thinks there needs to be alternate ideas in place to manage work absences.

“I think that we should be reorienting how we think about employees and realize that if somebody’s ill for three days, our first reaction should be compassion, that maybe they’re missing, and maybe what we really need to do is phone and see and make sure that they’re OK,” she said.