Adam: Doug Ford needs to back paid sick leave during COVID-19
Kathleen Wynne #KathleenWynne
With COVID-19 variants surging, and Ontario workplaces emerging as a big source of infections, Premier Doug Ford must reconsider his opposition to paid sick leave for workers.
This he should do not just because advocates say so, but because it is sound policy, and would help reduce community spread. Ford’s pivot to vaccinations in essential workplaces shows an awareness of the evolving nature of the danger facing the province. He should take the next logical step and give these workers paid sick leave.
Public health experts and front-line doctors across the province, have long identified paid sick leave for workers as an important element in the fight against COVID-19. This is because many essential workers, especially low-wage earners, live paycheque to paycheque, and are compelled to go to work even when infected. They cannot afford to lose even a day’s pay. There’s already evidence that some of the infections that devastated long-term care homes, were spread by health workers who went to work sick.
Recently, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, backed the idea , telling reporters that paid sick leave could be an important factor in reducing community spread.
Toronto Mayor John Tory, whose city is an epicentre of COVID-19, and where workplace infections are rising, has joined the call . “When people have paid sick leave, 94 per cent comply with public health guidance,” he says. “When they don’t, just over half do … It’s not their fault.”
But Ford has’t budged.
The premier says there’s no reason for the province to introduce its own paid sick leave program because the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit exists for the same purpose. Indeed, the $1 billion federal program provides $500 a week ($450 after tax) for people who have to stay home if sick with COVID-19. Workers have to apply weekly if needed, for up to four weeks. Ford says 300,000 Ontarians have already accessed the program and there’s still $750 million available.
So, is CRSB the answer, as Ford says?
Advocates say qualification for the federal program is so cumbersome and restrictive, it cuts out many of the people who actually need it.
For one, a worker must have earned $5,000 a year in 2019 or 2020, to qualify, says Ontario Federation of Labour president Patty Coates. As well, an applicant must work a whole week. So, if a worker has to take a day off for a COVID test, then wait another day or two for the result, he or she doesn’t qualify for CRSB, Coates says. Which means the person loses income by doing the right thing. Workers must also apply online, but many don’t have Internet access, and phones don’t always work. And applicants must wait two weeks to get paid – a non-starter for many who live hand-to-mouth.
The loss of even a day’s pay could be the difference between hunger and food on the table, so people go to work even when sick, with all the attendant consequences, says Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress. He says CRSB is no substitute for permanent paid sick leave.
“Many workers are living … from paycheque to paycheque, barely making ends meet. They cannot wait two weeks to get paid,” Coates says. “When you have paid sick days, it’s seamless. You call in sick, your pay continues for the number of days you are entitled to.’’
The debate is complicated by the fact that one of the first things Ford did on assuming office was to eliminate a two-day paid sick program enacted by his predecessor, Kathleen Wynne. That opens Ford to criticism that he has a philosophical or ideological aversion to paid sick leave and is merely using the federal program as an excuse.
Be that as it may, surging COVID cases in the province demand a new approach.
Public health experts and front-line doctors cannot all be wrong, or playing politics with the issue. This is about curbing COVID-19 and saving lives. Ford must drop his opposition and embrace paid sick leave.
Mohammed Adam is an Ottawa journalist and commentator. Reach him at: nylamiles48@gmail.com