Vancouver B.C. fire fighters are celebrating a major victory after a three-year fight to overturn an unfair sick leave policy that undermined their rights and jeopardized their health and safety.
In July, an arbitrator sided with Vancouver Local 18 and ordered the city to stop deducting fire fighters’ first four annual paid sick days from a union-funded benefits plan.
The ruling affirms that fire fighters – like all workers – are guaranteed five paid sick days under amendments made to the province’s Employment Standards Act (ESA) in 2022. It also means fire fighters will benefit from the intent of the legislation, which is that employees shouldn’t have to choose between going to work sick or injured or losing pay.
The city has until Oct. 31 to return between $200,000 and $400,000 to the union and its membership, including interest. Hearings on whether punitive damages should be imposed against the city will be held later this year.
Local 18 President Katrina Davison emphasizes that the decision is about more than money – it’s about standing up for member health and safety and ensuring that employers everywhere meet their obligations under the law.
Sick leave is a basic right, and instead of spending years and resources trying to deny fire fighters what every other worker already has, the city should have supported the people who protect this community every day.”
Local 18 President Katrina Davison
“This never should have been a fight,” she said. “Sick leave is a basic right, and instead of spending years and resources trying to deny fire fighters what every other worker already has, the city should have supported the people who protect this community every day.”
The ruling reinforces that fire fighters can choose when to use their five ESA sick days. It also requires the city to use the average day’s pay formula outlined in the legislation, including acting pay, when calculating sick leave. Sick days before the ESA amendments came into effect cannot be deducted from their entitlements unless the city itself paid for them.
“This decision confirms what we’ve said all along; sick leave protections in law belong to every fire fighter, and employers cannot offload those responsibilities onto workers themselves,” Davison said.
Local 18 filed its grievance as soon as the ESA provisions took effect in March 2022. When the city failed to comply with a January 2023 ruling that found its policy unlawful, the union was forced back into arbitration in late 2024 and early 2025 to seek clarification, new orders and punitive damages.
While the city argued its delay stemmed from the complexity of recalculating sick leave entitlements, Local 18 argued the city showed “a lack of strong and focused corporate will” to make good on its obligation.
