Ontarians strongly favour paid sick days, poll finds

A poll commissioned by Canada’s largest private-sector union has found that a large majority of Ontarians support legislated paid sick days for workers in the province.

The survey, commissioned by Unifor and conducted by Ottawa-based EKOS Research Associates Inc., polled a random sample of 1,240 adult residents in Ontario between April 7 and April 12.

All the data was statistically weighted by age, gender and region according to the Unifor report.

The poll found that 70 per cent Ontarians support five days of paid sick leave, while a slightly lower 64 per cent support 10 such days for workers in the province.

“The government needs to understand that the people of Ontario want and need paid sick days,” Unifor national president Jerry Dias said in a news release.

Sixty-eight per cent of all Ontarians also support providing a subsidy for small businesses to help cover the costs of paid sick leave, the release mentioned: “This support transcends partisanship and majorities from Ontario’s four major parties are in favour of these subsidies.”

The poll also found that Ontarians widely disagree with the notion that legislated paid sick leave will harm the economy and cost jobs, with just 23 per cent of the respondents agreeing with that assertion.

The poll concluded that the issue of paid sick leave has taken on greater urgency in the minds of the public as “the absence of paid sick leave is seen as having contributed to the worsening spread of COVID-19 and its more contagious variants.”

Respondents were also asked to choose their preferred political partythe poll found there was a “strong partisan divide” with Progressive Conservative supporters split on the issue, while backers of all other parties were overwhelmingly in favour.

“It’s time to put ideology aside and listen to workers, doctors and public health experts,” said Unifor Ontario regional director Naureen Rizvi.

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