It has been nearly one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. It has been more than one year since Canada reported its first case of the virus: carried into Canada by an international traveler. In March of last year, Ontario declared an emergency under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act with the aim of curtailing the spread of the virus.
Within the last year, Ontarians—and others, of course—have experienced waves of lockdowns, restrictions on certain liberties, fears of the virus, and have been subject to changing and confusing requirements. As of February 14th of this year, 6,693 people in Ontario have died of COVID-19, and more than 280,000 have contracted the virus.
But COVID-19 is not experienced uniformly throughout society. Data suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic is experienced more sharply by those with lower incomes and by recent immigrants. Many Ontarians have been working from home since last year, but not all workers have the same luxury. In the case of many migrant farm workers, for example, the necessity of in-person physical labour is sometimes combined with living conditions that make it challenging to physically distance.
Throughout multiple waves, changing recommendations, and increasingly dire infection data, one thing has remained constant: Ontario does not require paid sick days for workers. This needs to change.
In 2017, under the previous Ontario government, the Ontario legislature passed the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act. It amended the Employment Standards Act to include a modest two paid personal emergency leave days and eight unpaid personal emergency leave days. These days could be used for personal illness (i.e. sick days) or under other, specified circumstances.
Ontario repealed those provisions in 2018 through the Making Ontario Open for Business Act and substituted a minimum requirement of three unpaid days of sick leave per year for employees.
While many have comfortably and safely worked from home during this pandemic (myself included), others have been shamefully left out. Grocery store workers, for example, have called for paid sick days so that they do not have to choose between their health and their paycheques. It seems wrong to have a province of hand-painted “thank you, frontline workers” signs in windows but no paid sick days to supplement the sentiment. The expectations placed on many frontline workers has remained largely unchanged despite the pandemic: they still commute to work, respond to supervisors and the public, and do their job. Now they must do it while trying not to get themselves or others sick.
But there is hope. Ontario’s legislature, which was adjourned December 8th of last year to February 16th, has Bill 239 before it. If enacted, it would amend the Employment Standards Act to entitle employees to seven paid and three unpaid days of personal emergency leave annually. Such leave could be applied to personal illness or other circumstances specified in the legislation.
One thing this pandemic has shown is that it is not experienced uniformly across society. While paid sick days are not a panacea, some of these deep inequities can be lessened if we move toward a system in which workers do not suddenly experience a drop in pay when they are simply ill.
