Paid sick leave: Premier Ford is playing politics with people’s lives

by Dr. Jesse McLaren

Premier Doug Ford is right about one thing: “the decisions we make now…will be the difference between life and death for thousands of people.” Unfortunately, he’s chosen to play politics with people's lives. On March 1, the Conservatives voted against Bill 239 that would have legislated paid sick days for all. Since then another 80,000 people have been infected with COVID-19 across Ontario and more than 500 have died.

At a press conference on World Health Day, Premier Ford doubled down in his opposition to paid sick days. He claimed that lockdowns worked before so all we have to do is stay home and get vaccinated, and that the government was helping high-risk neighbourhoods. He also claimed that there are already federal paid sick days, so any call for provincial paid sick days is “irresponsible”, “playing politics” and doing a “disservice” to “the taxpayer.” This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Let's unpack seven deceptive statements from this week's announcement.

#1 “High-risk neighbourhoods” are inevitable

COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on racialized, low-income communities, which was clear after the first wave. As Public Health Ontario reported last May, the most diverse neighbourhoods had three times the rate of COVID-19, four times the rate of hospitalization and ICU admissions, and double the mortality rate. Last November, data from Toronto found that racialized people (52% of the population) had 79% of COVID-19 infections and 71% of admissions, and low-income people (30% of the population) had 54% of hospital admissions.

But these neighbourhoods are not inherently “high-risk”, they have been made high-risk by policies the Ford government made before the pandemic and which it has refused to reverse during the pandemic—like freezing the minimum wage and cutting paid sick days. As Dr. Tam explained, “Members of racialized communities are more likely to experience inequitable living and working conditions that make them more susceptible to COVID-19, such as lower incomes, precarious employment, overcrowded housing, and limited access to health and social services.”

And as Toronto Medical Officer for Health Dr. Eileen de Villa explained, “While COVID-19 is a threat to everyone, it is plainly imposing real and disproportionate burdens on racialized communities and lower income groups. It is important to acknowledge how people’s living and working conditions are contributing to these inequities…Many workers and lower wage frontline jobs do not get paid if they call in sick. This is a significant barrier to our pandemic management efforts and reinforces the need for effective income supports for working people suffering from COVID-19, in particular paid sick days.”

#2 “We did it before and it worked when we stayed home”

According to Ford, prior stay-at-home orders worked. But the lockdowns during the first and second waves only worked for high-income neighbourhoods—which are the least diverse, the most able to work from home, and the most likely to already have access to paid sick days. Lockdowns did not work for low-income racialized neighourhoods, who are more likely to be essential workers who can’t work from home and who are disproportionately denied paid sick days. In other words, lockdowns without paid sick days don’t work for essential workers. This disservice fails those who need protection the most, and contributed to making racialized low-income neighbourhoods “high-risk” for COVID-19.

The idea that the response to the first two waves “worked” also ignores the massive death toll in long-term care, a predictable outcome of precarious work. Ford claims to listen to the Science Table COVID-19 advisory for Ontario. But as their report explained after the second wave, “many LTC home staff have part-time jobs without access to paid sick leave, meaning that staff may come to work sick and/or they may be forced to work other front-facing jobs that increase their risk of SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes COVID-19] infection. More immediate and long-term commitments to increasing the number of full-time jobs with fair pay and benefits including paid sick leave will help remedy the staffing crisis and can also help reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 into LTC homes.”

#3 “Please, unless it’s for an essential reason, stay home”

This advice is useless for the 65% of workers across the Greater Toronto Area (2 million people) who are doing work that is considered essential, who are disproportionately low-wage, racialized, and denied paid sick days. The denial of paid sick days has been proven to undermine public health advice: as one study found, 94% of workers comply with self-isolation when their wages are covered, but this drops to 57% when they lose wages. In other words, denying paid sick days drives people into work when they should be staying home, which is especially dangerous for COVID-19 which can spread when people are asymptomatic or only mildly symptomatic.

This has been recognized in many US jurisdictions in the US, who are ahead of Canada in legislating paid sick days. As an article from the Journal of the American Medical Association explained: “Paid sick leave is an essential part of the public health and humanitarian response, particularly for lower-income populations and communities of color that have been hit hard by the pandemic. Patients should not be forced to choose between their livelihoods and the health of the larger community.”

This is especially important with the emergence of new infectious variants. A study of variants of concern in the Greater Toronto Area found that they emerged at twice the rate in groups with the lowest income, and almost three times the rate in groups with the most essential work. This occurred despite lockdown measures, showing that additional measures are required. As the authors concluded there is a “need for targeted and tailored interventions to interrupt transmission chains in essential worker communities,” including paid sick days.

#4 “Get a vaccination when it’s your turn”

This advice from Health Minister Christine Elliot ignores barriers to vaccination, which have resulted in the lowest rates of vaccination for those in the greatest need. Data shows that the wealthy neighbourhood of Forest Hill has a rate of COVID hospitalization/death of 0.63/100,000 and a vaccination rate of 22.1%, while the low-income neighbourhood of Jane & Finch has a rate of COVID hospitalization/death of 5.06/100,000 but a vaccination rate of 5.5%. In other words, the neighbourhood with more than 5 times the rate of hospitalization/death has a quarter the rate of vaccination.As Akwatu Khenti, chair of Toronto’s Black Scientists Task Force on Vaccine Equity explained, “The reason that Black people have a higher rate of positivity, or higher hospital rates, is actually because of social inequities, systemic racism and neighbourhood vulnerabilities…The most vulnerable should be first in line [for the COVID vaccine.] Right now, the most vulnerable are racialized health professionals, racialized communities.”

Such demands have finally pushed the government to start implementing mobile vaccination units and prioritizing “high-risk” neighbourhoods, but having access to the vaccine is only the first barrier to overcome. A survey of healthcare workers found 64% were worried about losing paid work time in order to get the vaccine or because of side effects, and 68% were more likely to get the vaccine if these costs were covered. As Sharleen Stewart, president of SEIU Healthcare explained, "As the government plans to ramp up vaccine roll-out, it's important that their plan eliminate all barriers to vaccination for frontline healthcare workers. That's why we're calling on Premier Ford's government to provide financial support for those healthcare workers who lack paid sick leave and are anxious about missing work because of potential side effects from the vaccine."

#5 “There’s paid sick leave from the federal government”

As a survey of 193 countries during the pandemic found, “Nearly three quarters of countries (73%) globally made paid sick leave available for those in the formal economy from the first day of illness, supporting workers’ ability to stay home at the first sign of illness.” But more than half of workers across Canada do not have paid sick days, including three-quarter of low-income workers. The Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB) does not close this gap.

Paid sick days need to be universal, fully-paid, adequate for one day of vaccination or two weeks of self-isolation, accessible on the first day of illness, and permanent. CRSB is useful income support but it fails every criteria for effective paid sick days. By requiring a SIN number it excludes migrant workers. By providing $450/week after taxes it does not cover full wages. By having to apply after missing half a week’s work, it is not accessible on the first sign of illness, which is crucial for preventing the spread of COVID. By only being available in one-week intervals it isn’t a reliable support for getting vaccinated, or to get tested for COVID-19 and wait for results. And, by only applying to COVID-19 related leave, it doesn’t cover other personal emergencies during the pandemic, and will end after the pandemic. It’s for all these reasons that there is a near unanimous call for provincially legislated paid sick days.

#6 Paid sick days are “double dipping”

Doug Ford claims that paid sick days duplicate CRSB and waste public resources. As he has previously stated, “We aren't going to duplicate and waste taxpayers money, double dipping into their pockets.” But paid sick days are not only different than CRSB by design (CRSB is a retroactive income support, paid sick days are a proactive public health measure), but also in terms of who pays: while CRSB is paid for through federal funds, paid sick days are provided and paid for by employers. So paid sick days don’t duplicate, don’t double dip into public funds, and don’t waste taxpayers money.

In fact, paid sick days cost the public nothing, because they are paid by employers. Despite this cost, the vast majority of employers have supported paid sick days in San Francisco to New York because paid sick days are an investment in healthy workers and a healthy workplace. During the pandemic it’s even more important for employers to pay, because the worst outbreaks have come from large companies which have profited by conditions that fuel the pandemic—like Amazon, which made billions while hundreds of its workers have been infected; or Extendicare, one of the LTC companies with the highest death rates that also made millions while pocketing the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy. Legislating paid sick days would hold employers accountable for the dangerous workplace conditions that have fueled the pandemic, and would protect the low-wage and racialized workers who are essential to our economy.

#7 “The opposition” is “playing politics”

Support for paid sick days across Ontario is nearly unanimous—including community and labour organizations, medical organizations and medical officers of health, mayors (including two former leaders of the Conservative party), media outlets, and the NDP, Liberals and Green party. Dr. Teresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, called paid sick leave “essential to protect worker and community health.” The Conservatives are now virtually the only opposition to paid sick days, and are playing politics with people’s lives. They voted down Bill 239, worsening the third wave. But due to enormous public pressure, another bill has taken its place: Bill 247 would legislate 10 permanent paid sick days, and is crucial for addressing the pandemic.

Rather than leaving neighbourhoods “at risk”, legislating paid sick days would address one of many root causes of COVID-19 spread – lack of workplace protections. Rather than repeating the failures of past lockdowns, legislating paid sick days would support essential workers. Rather than giving empty advice to “stay at home”, legislating paid sick days would support those at greatest risk for new variants. Rather than perpetuating vaccine inequity, legislating paid sick days would help overcome barriers. Rather than relying on a restrictive and retroactive income support, legislating paid sick days would provide a proactive and permanent public health measure. Rather than falsely inflating costs, legislating paid sick days would provide employer-paid investments in health. And rather than playing politics, legislating paid sick days would save lives.

It’s true that “the decisions we make now…will be the difference between life and death for thousands of people.” This is why the provincial government must abandon its irresponsible opposition to paid sick days, and pass Bill 247.