However, it is far from inevitable a national sick-leave policy can be worked out or for how long it might be in effect.
The pledge by Trudeau was a condition of NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s support for the Liberals’ resumption plans for Parliament. Those talks had hit an impasse on Friday, Singh said in an interview.
During a Sunday phone call between Trudeau and the NDP leader, Singh said Trudeau “accepted that we have the federal powers to immediately use something like (the Canada Emergency Response Benefit) to give people immediate basic leave” during the pandemic.
Singh said he’s confident the government will work toward a longer term goal of making paid sick leave a permanent part of the Canadian safety net.
“I’m not sold that it’s a done deal but certainly we can do it, and there’s an openness to doing it,” Singh said. “The commitment made publicly today gives me some confidence that we’ve taken at least one bold step towards realizing paid sick leave for all Canadians.”
But the Canadian Federation of Independent Business warned against a rush toward permanent changes.
Dan Kelly, president of the organization which represents more than 110,000 small and medium-sized employers, said most small business owners “do their best to work out formal or informal solutions that work for both the business and its employees” and are already bracing for looming hikes in Employment Insurance premiums and previously planned increases in pension premiums.
“Small business owners just cannot be expected to take on any additional costs at this time,” Kelly said.
The Canadian Labour Congress and business leaders in British Columbia — along with Premier John Horgan — have pressed Trudeau to act.
The idea is to keep sick people out of the workplace in the hopes of avoiding a new rise in infections or a second shutdown.
“A number of premiers have agreed that we do need to look at ways of encouraging people who begin to exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 to be able to stay home for a day or two, for the time necessary to be able to get themselves tested and possibly treated,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau said it will be “essential” in the country’s economic recovery and its efforts to control the spread of the disease, which has now infected 85,103 Canadians, and caused at least 6,453 deaths.
But he acknowledged that the “mechanisms are challenging” to meet the goal of a national sick-leave policy and “that’s why we are working with the provinces.”
Regulating conditions governing workplaces is a shared jurisdiction between the federal and provincial governments.
Ottawa is responsible for federally regulated sectors like telecommunications, railways, banking, radio and television broadcasting and the federal public service, whereas provinces regulate others who employ about 90 per cent of Canada’s workforce, including medium-sized and small businesses.
Right now there is a patchwork of sick-leave provisions across the country. All provinces require workers have access to unpaid sick days, but only Quebec and Prince Edward Island require paid sick leave. Ontario stipulates three days of unpaid sick leave, while paid sick leave is a decision between employers and their employees, companies and unions.
David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, said Ottawa “can’t impose” paid sick leave on provinces or employers, but it “can come to the table with money and that would make a difference.”
The lack of paid sick leave in Canada will particularly come into play after the first week of July when those who have relied on CERB since mid-March can expect to run out of 16 weeks worth of payments, and may face re-entering workplaces where the risk of infection is high.
The CERB supports people who lost a job due to COVID-19 and didn’t qualify for Employment Insurance. It pays $500 a week for up to 16 weeks, and is not available to those who voluntarily quit a job.
Macdonald says workers who have no paid sick leave are vulnerable if they refuse unsafe work and “unscrupulous” employers threaten to report that they voluntarily quit.
If Ottawa wanted to give those workers protection, he said, “you could imagine” that CERB acts as a temporary paid-sick-leave payment program.
The downside is it could be seen as a punishment or disincentive for employers who do offer paid sick leave now, or who would see no need to create proper paid sick leave policies. “Hopefully we come out of this with better labour standards for employees, not worse,” he said.
Trudeau said Monday that changes could be made to the CERB program, but he provided no details. To date, 8.21 million Canadians have applied for CERB, with more than $40 billion being paid out.
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/05/25/justin-trudeau-says-hell-seek-10-days-of-paid-sick-leave-for-all-workers.html?utm_source=TVO&utm_campaign=5bcd08dec4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_1_17_2019_10_56_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_eadf6a4c78-5bcd08dec4-68105177
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