Provinces must move to support sick workers

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/01/2023 (713 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“If there’s two different companies offering the same job, you’re going to go with the company that is giving you more and giving you that work-life balance. We don’t need to be that office hero and go to work when we’re sick. It’s now frowned upon, where three years ago that was almost an expectation where no matter what, you’re at work.”

— Brandon and District Labour Council president Kirk Carr

Manitoba’s continuing refusal to consider the pressing need for a paid sick-leave law has become an exercise in bad timing.

Respiratory illnesses — including COVID-19 — continue to rampage through the population, threatening to overwhelm the health-care system and upending the ability of businesses of all size to staff their operations. At the same time, employers are also bearing the burden of a shortage of skilled workers in many industries and sectors.

Faced with all of those challenges, Premier Heather Stefanson’s Progressive Conservative government has gone dark on the issue of paid sick leave.

Former Manitoba premier Brian Pallister, to his credit, followed the lead of other provinces and instituted a paid sick-leave support program during the first two years of the pandemic, providing up to $600 to cover the wages of employees who were too sick to work. However, that program was discontinued last March, despite its popularity among employers and its relatively modest price tag of $10.7 million.

That decision puts Manitoba into a growing group of provinces that are abandoning paid sick leave support.

Prince Edward Island’s COVID-19 sick-leave program expired at the end of 2022. Ontario, which provided up to $200 per day per employee, for up to three sick days, will terminate its program March 31.

As Ottawa physician Dr. Charles Shaver noted two years ago, just two provinces mandated paid sick leave before the pandemic hit Canada — Quebec, which offered two paid sick days per year, and Prince Edward Island, with one day. Prior to 2020, Ontario used to require two days, but this program was repealed by Premier Doug Ford in 2018.

Yet other provinces have instituted permanent paid sick-leave provisions in the wake of COVID-19 supports. British Columbia now guarantees five paid days, and Quebec continues to have its two-day paid sick leave program.

Meanwhile, the federal government introduced legislation last year guaranteeing up to 10 paid sick days for workers in federally regulated industries such as financial services, communications and transportation.

Ottawa has said it would like all the provinces to join them in providing 10 days of paid sick leave, given that it has become a critical economic issue. Workers who insist on coming into work while sick are a huge drag on productivity. And workers in jobs with no paid sick leave have less money to pump into the economy.

On the positive side of the equation, employers with sick-leave benefits enjoy greater productivity and find it easier to recruit and retain skilled workers. Considering the collective experience of the last few years, the benefits of paid sick leave to the provincial economy should be obvious.

It is very difficult to get a firm fix on the number of Canadians who do not have paid sick leave, but most experts agree only half of the country’s labour force has access to some sort of mandated or employer-provided program. That leaves millions of workers facing difficult choices at a time when respiratory viruses are causing unprecedented levels of disruption.

When they eliminated all pandemic restrictions last year, Canada’s provinces, including Manitoba, were insistent that we “learn to live with COVID-19.” If that is to be our fate, we should have adequate supports in place to ensure we can take time off work while “living with” this insidious virus.

A simple mandate to employers would only solve part of the problem, however. The cost of paid sick leave is a burden to all employers, particularly smaller businesses with lower margins.

Provincial governments need to dig deep to find a balance that involves both mandated time off and financial supports.

Direct government subsidies worked well through the first two years of the pandemic. Perhaps tax credits or the ability to write off paid sick leave as a business expense could also be in the mix.

Whatever the combination of solutions, provinces would be well advised to abandon their penny-wise, pound-foolish attitudes and take steps to support sick workers and their employers.

The health of our workers and our economy will be the better for it.

» Winnipeg Free Press and The Brandon Sun