Submitted to ESA Leave Consultation on May 6, 2024 via email to ESA-Leave-Consultation@ontario. PDF available here.

The Decent Work and Health Network (DWHN) is an organization representing health care providers, public health professionals, health policy experts, and communities across Ontario. Our province-wide network recognizes that improved working conditions are a critical pathway to better health outcomes. We have been providing health-related feedback and analysis on labour policies since 2014.

Our members regularly help patients navigate the financial hardships associated with long-term sickness or injury, in particular for those who are engaged in low wage and/or precarious work. We also have health worker members with first hand experience of these systems. We are putting forward four recommendations as described below.

1. Personal long-term illness leave under the ESA must be at least 27 weeks

We believe that when workers access the federal Employment Insurance (EI) sickness benefit, their ongoing employment should be protected under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act (ESA). This improvement would align employment protection with the 26 weeks benefit period plus 1 week waiting period of federal EI sickness benefits.

Submitted as part of Heat Stress Consultations, to Health, Safety and Insurance Policy Branch, Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development on September 18, 2023.

The Decent Work and Health Network (DWHN) is an organisation of health providers, public health professionals, and health policy experts. Our province-wide network advocates for improved working conditions as a means to achieve better health outcomes, and has been doing so since 2014. We are writing today in regards to Heat Stress Consultations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Heat is increasingly a threat to health and productivity in workplaces across Ontario. Heat impacts a range of workers and workplaces, including steel mills and smelters; outdoor occupations such as construction, app-based delivery workers, agriculture and road repair; as well as indoor settings such as restaurants, laundries and warehouses. Workers who perform strenuous labour, often earn low wages, or have limited control over their working conditions, and are at the highest risk of heat-related illness. In many of these settings it is becoming increasingly difficult for workers to maintain a healthy  body temperature that is essential to the safety of affected workers and others around them, particularly as we experience the expanding effects of climate change. 

Sent by email to [email protected] on December 15, 2022.

Dear Committee members,

The Decent Work and Health Network is an organisation of health providers, public health professionals, and health policy experts. Our province-wide network advocates for improved working conditions as a means to achieve better health outcomes, and has been doing so since 2014. We are writing today to bring attention to the existing gaps in health equity for workers in Ontario, which includes access to benefits.

Our network shares the panel’s concerns that the rise of precarious work has put the health of workers at risk. Our patients in part-time, temporary, casual, and app-based work are often denied access to benefits while facing a higher risk of exposure to injury and illnesses.

As health workers who see the daily impacts of precarious work on our patients’ health, we have repeatedly presented evidence-based recommendations both to the public and to policy makers to effectively address the upstream factors of poor health. We believe that a portable benefits program will further entrench precarity by creating a substandard classification of workers without access to basic employment standards.

That is why the most effective policy to address precarious work is not a portable benefits program but to:

Sent by email to [email protected] on December 1, 2021

Dear Minister O’Regan,

On behalf of the Decent Work and Health Network, we wish to congratulate you on the introduction of 10 paid sick days for federally regulated employees. As our experience with COVID-19 has demonstrated, paid sick days are essential for the health of individuals, families, communities, and our economy.

We are a group of doctors, nurses, health workers and experts that have been at the forefront of the movement for paid sick days as a public health measure. Our organization has repeatedly presented evidence-based recommendations for effective paid sick leave policy.

To further support the effectiveness of your policy and ensure the purposes are met, we recommend the following amendments to Bill C-3. These recommendations are backed by health workers and experts across the country.