Doctors say COVID19 underlines the need to bring back paid sick days

Dr. Kate Hayman of the Decent Work and Health Network joined Rita Celli on CBC Radio's Ontario Today to speak to live callers about the importance of paid sick days in light of flu season and coronavirus.

"I work with a group of healthcare workers called the Decent Work and Health Network and we believe that work is such an important determinant of people's health. In the emergency department, I see people all the time having to make these really challenging decisions about whether they can actually afford to stay home from work, and we know that it's so important that they can recover, and to protect the health of the public, but without access to paid sick days that is just not possible for them." - Dr. Kate Hayman

One caller talks about being forced to come in while suffering from an active Staph infection. An employer speaks about why his trucking company offers its drivers one week of paid sick leave a year. Another caller explains how her elderly mother's Personal Support Worker (PSW) was forced by her employer to come into work sick, infecting everyone else in the private care home. 

"These policies, the lack of legislation to protect workers, disproportionately affects women, oftentimes racialized women, newcomers to Canada, and a lot of folks who are working in the service industry. It's very common for PSWs, for people who are serving food, people who are working with kids, for them to not have any access to paid sick leave." - Dr. Kate Hayman

Dr. Hayman spells out the key demands, saying, "we've been asking the government to bring back 10 days of flexible job-protected personal-emergency-leave, and to bring back paid sick days."

Listen to the full episode here.