01/29/2021
The Government of Ontario declared its second state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic on January 12, 2021 with a stay-at-home order coming into effect on January 14. Under this order, anyone who can work from home should do so, but essential services continue to operate. While we tend to think of frontline workers as the doctors and nurses in hospitals and care homes, battling the virus head-on, we cannot forget our grocery store workers, food service employees, delivery people and more who put their lives at risk every day for minimum wage or less.
Sadly, these are precisely the people that Premier Doug Ford’s government has forgotten in this new state of emergency. While the coronavirus rages on with over 3000 new infections per day in Ontario alone, this government has failed to institute sufficient protections for our essential workers. In 2017, the Liberal government under former Premier Kathleen Wynne passed Bill 148, which amended the Employment Standards Act to require that employers provide 10 emergency leave days for their employees, of which at least two must be paid. When the Ford government took over in 2018, they enacted Bill 47, which repealed paid sick days and reduced the total emergency leave from 10 days to eight. Of those eight days, only three are allocated for personal illness, and employers may request proof of illness from their employees.
Prior to the pandemic, many of us would go into work even if we were feeling a little under the weather. A cough here, a sniffle there—no big deal, there’s work to do. The pressure to attend work despite an illness is even greater for low income workers who depend on one or more jobs to meet their basic needs. Today, the stakes are much higher. We have a virulent disease sweeping the globe with little protection available. Essential workers outside of health care are not to be vaccinated until at least phase 2 of Ontario’s vaccine rollout, which is not expected until March 2021 at the earliest. Without paid sick days, essential workers struggling to make ends meet will need to make the tough decision to forego pay or put their co-workers and customers at risk.
The federal government has instituted the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB), which provides $450 after tax for one week of illness or self-isolation. Individuals can apply for an additional week of benefits, but one may only receive a maximum of two weeks’ coverage between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021. If workers are exposed or infected more than once during that period, they will not be eligible for further benefits under the CRSB. Processing time can take anywhere between three business days to over four weeks.
Premier Ford believes the CRSB is enough to protect low-wage workers. It’s not enough. COVID-19 has revealed the tenuousness of our economic security and public health. Ontario must reinstitute paid sick days without proof, or we will never see the light at the end of the pandemic.
(Shae-Lynn - Immigration Division)
