The BC government announced a guaranteed minimum number of employer-paid sick days for most workers; there are exclusions. The Worker Solidarity Network, the BC Federation of Labour, and other allied groups, including Socialist Alternative, called for 10 paid sick days per year for all workers, as a minimum standard required to ensure the health and safety of workplaces. The supposedly pro-worker New Democratize Party (NDP) government, after consulting with the business lobby, has decided to offer only 5 paid sick days, starting January 1, 2022.
It’s true that this means BC will be the first province in Canada to guarantee paid sick days for all workers, but that is much more a statement of the abysmal situation in Canada compared to many jurisdictions in Europe, for example, where paid sick days are taken for granted along with universal health care. The announcement of 5 days is a partial victory for BC’s workers, but it is a victory that required constant pressure on the BC NDP, a party that remains unwilling to show leadership in fighting for the needs of workers.
It’s not just a question of the number of days either. The BC NDP has not removed the 90-day restriction or the need for a doctor’s note. As it stands employers don’t have to provide paid sick leave for the first 90 days a worker is on the job. This is an absurd restriction on the face of it (is a person any less likely to get sick for the first 90 days), but it also disqualifies many precarious and seasonal workers from benefiting at all. Requiring doctor’s notes puts unnecessary strain on the health care system and is a stressful bureaucratic hurdle for workers to jump through with no measurable benefit.
These days Canadians defend their universal health care system with pride against the for-profit model in the United States. But what good is free health care if you can’t take time off work to use it? In 2020, 90 percent of workers making less than $30,000 a year had no access to paid time off work when they got sick. For many of these workers this means that they must make a choice between not being able to make their next rent payment or going into work sick.
It took COVID to highlight this gap in the health care system and raise it into the public consciousness. When workers have to take multiple days off to isolate and get tested for COVID, the fact that many could simply not afford to do so was obviously unacceptable. Many of the workers who are forced into these situations are the very same essential workers that society relies on to function.
These circumstances gave the BC NDP a clear opportunity to show leadership and demonstrate its commitment to the needs of the working class. In the recent federal election, both the federal NDP and the Liberal party campaigned on 10 paid sick days for federally regulated workers. Would the BC NDP, with a majority government, really allow itself to be outflanked on the left by the federal Liberals? But once again the BC NDP buckled under pressure from the corporate lobby and offered a “compromise” of only 5 days.
The NDP today is a dim shadow of the party that won universal health care in Canada in face of resistance from private interests. Those victories were won by confidently asserting the needs of working-class people, and through a political struggle against the disingenuous claims of businesses. The government itself admits that studies of other jurisdictions that require paid sick leave show that the net cost to businesses is negligible, and indeed there are many benefits “including increased productivity and retention of trained staff, reduced risks of injury, improved morale and increased labour-force participation.”
But why then would they not take up the demands of the workers and require 10 days instead of 5? The only reason is because the BC NDP wants to retain some support from the business groups who are unwilling to give up any more of their profits than they have to. In making these deals with private interests the NDP inevitably betrays the workers and feeds into the disillusionment many working-class people already have in electoral politics.
The attempt to compromise with big business also fails on its own terms. Business groups such as the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade are already crying foul over how this compromise policy will cost Metro Vancouver businesses “somewhere between half a million dollars and a billion dollars annually.” These corporate lobby groups cynically hide behind the plight of the suffering small business owner while in reality they represent big business and corporations who are unwilling to give up any of their profits. By introducing 5 days instead of 10, the BC NDP will not convince a single business group to support them over the BC Liberals in the next election. The corporate lobby is not interested in creating a “fair” society, they are interested in maximizing their profits, and they know the BC Liberals will do that best. That’s why workers need a party that will unashamedly stand up for their interests over the interests of big business, something that the BC NDP repeatedly refuses to do.
The new paid sick leave policy goes into effect on January 1, 2022. It will require that employers pay for up to five paid sick days per year for every employee. But it is very much an open question how this policy will be enforced. Low wage workers are in a very precarious position, often just one missed pay cheque away from not being able to pay rent or buy groceries. What recourse will they have if their employer refuses to pay, or refuses to recognize that workers need to take a sick day? What will be the consequences if employers attempt to fire workers for taking their sick days? Fair, timely, and effective enforcement will be crucial to ensure that all workers are able to realize their new rights.
The fight for paid sick leave continues in the other provinces across Canada, with unions and other workers’ groups raising similar demands. The results in BC show that even a supposedly “left-wing” provincial government will compromise with corporate interests. This means the fight for adequate paid sick leave in provinces like Ontario, under Doug Ford’s Tory government, will be even harder. Socialist Alternative campaigned in BC for 10 days of paid leave, regularly tabling on the streets.
Socialist Alternative calls for a living wage and safe working conditions for all, which necessarily includes the ability to take time off work when sick without loss of income or fear of reprisals. The Canadian working class is still clearly in need of a party that is willing to confront the corporate lobby head on and fight for the rights of workers.
