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18 August 2025

Saskatchewan Employment Act Amendments Set To Come Into Force January 1, 2026

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Saskatchewan's Lieutenant Governor has approved an Order in Council setting January 1, 2026, as the date in which Bill No. 5 will come into force.
Canada Saskatchewan Employment and HR

Saskatchewan's Lieutenant Governor has approved an Order in Council setting January 1, 2026, as the date in which Bill No. 5 will come into force. This Bill contains a number of notable amendments to The Saskatchewan Employment Act (SEA) that will take effect at the start of the new year.

At a high level, some of the notable changes to the SEA include:

  • Restrictions on when medical certificates can be requested for employees who are absent from work due to illness or injury (either their own or that of an immediate family member)
  • Prohibitions on withholding or deducting gratuities or "tips" from employees and regulatory authority to establish conditions that must be met for a tip pooling arrangement
  • Expanded protected long-term sick leave and interpersonal violence leave, and more flexibility for bereavement leave and access to maternity leave
  • Providing employers the option of defining a "day" as an individual calendar day or to continue using the existing 24-hour period definition for overtime purposes
  • New categories of permissible deductions from wages
  • Expanded authority of the Director of Employment Standards to issue remedies in discriminatory action complaints
  • Clarification that employers do not have to provide vacation pay on the period for which statutory pay-in-lieu of termination notice is being provided

For a more detailed list of the upcoming changes, please see our previously updated article that laid out these changes in detail.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

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