Paid sick leave may be on B.C.’s agenda when the province returns to work

When times comes to re-open B.C.’s economy, ensuring sick workers don't return to the job will be one the provincial government’s priorities and paid sick leave is on the agenda.

“If there’s a hierarchy of measures that are important, not working sick is of the highest level of importance,” Minister of Health Adrian Dix said today, April 27. “We’ve seen renewed evidence of that in the last seven days – of the importance of employers not insisting that people work sick or that workers not be working sick."

He was referring to two outbreaks of COVID-19 in Lower Mainland poultry processing plants where people went to work sick.

“That’s going to be a fundamental change that’s going to be a key part of any strategy that one can possibly think of when dealing with COVID-19, until there is some form of community immunity,” Dix said.

While Dix didn’t specifically speak of paid sick leave today, Premier John Horgan spoke addressed the question last week.

“It’s important that we put in place a framework, through WorkSafe, where we can have safe work places and an understanding that sick pay is there not just to give extra dollars to people who are ill but, perhaps, to ensure that those workers don’t come to work because they know they don’t have to forego their wages for the day,” Horgan said April 22.

“We’re going to have a dialogue across sectors to those areas (that) don’t provide sick pay for their employees. We did bring in some changes to Employment Standards to make sure people didn’t lose their jobs for not coming to work. But, obviously, the lesson that I’ve learned from the limited information I have on the poultry facility is that workers were coming to work because they were fearful they would lose wages and not be able to meet their expenses. We can’t have people putting others at risk for fear of economic consequences for themselves.”

To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submitphotos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.