On May 11, BC’s NDP government finally announced the introduction of paid sick leave, more than year into the COVID pandemic. This shift was driven by mounting pressure from unions, doctors, public health workers and the public. The NDP’s lack of sick pay was embarrassing after the conservative premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, introduced paid sick leave two weeks earlier. It doesn’t look good for the NDP, that claims to be worker-friendly, to be outperformed by Ford!
In Ontario, the NDP criticized Ford’s policy as “three days of paid sick leave will not cut it.” Three days also “will not cut it” in BC, yet that is what was announced. Unions and others in BC agree that three days is inadequate. Kim Strauss, of Simon Fraser University, said that it is “the most minimal program, perhaps, that the government thought they could get away with. It’s not only late, but seems really unlikely to be able to address the issues that workers face.” It often takes more than three days to determine if a person has COVID. When a workplace is closed due to COVID it is usually for ten days; the sick leave should also be for ten days.
The sick pay in BC is not really paid by the employer. They pay it out, but the government reimburses them, so taxpayers are subsidizing employers. Employers should pay workers’ wages, which should include holidays, sick pay, maternity leave, etc.
The NDP stated that it will review the scheme and consult before making a final decision on sick pay at the end of 2021. The pressure should continue for a genuine sick pay program paid by employers.
The NDP in BC should be setting an example for the rest of Canada instead of playing catch-up to Doug Ford.
No Sick Pay is Sickening (published May 9)
It is no exaggeration that for many this has been the worst year on memory, with the fear, misery, illness and death of COVID alongside job and income loss for many. Even after a year of COVID, many workers have no guaranteed sick pay.
Only 42 percent of Canadian workers have paid sick leave. The higher a workers’ income the more likely they are to have paid sick leave – 62 percent of those earning over $100,000 have it. In BC, nearly 90 percent of workers who earn less than $30,000 have no paid sick days. Hypocritically, many are described as “essential” workers.
With over half, and rising, of all BC residents living from paycheque to paycheque staying home when ill is simply not an option. People need to be able to support themselves, and no amount of worker shaming will change this. Therefore, the only way to guarantee COVID-infected people stay home, is to guarantee sick pay.
So, how did BC get to this desperate point? Eight months ago, CERB ended, and, in theory, people went back to work. At this time, the provinces and the federal NDP successfully pressured the federal government to fund a national sick pay program, the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB). In theory, it was to be the spiritual successor of CERB, acting as a “quarantine fund” for workers. In practice however, it pays out at less than minimum wage and takes weeks for the applicant to receive anything. In other words, it was designed to be an underutilized, meaningless gesture.
Initially, BC’s Premier John Horgan promised to pursue sick pay provincially if Ottawa failed to deliver. After all, labour laws fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial government. So far, it’s been all talk and no action from the NDP. The 2021 BC Budget was a big disappointment as it made no mention of sick pay. This is in the midst of Canada’s third wave – a wave whose incidence of infection is nearly ten times that of the first. Nor has there been any initiative in Victoria to improve the Employment Standards Act. This would force businesses to provide a minimum amount of paid sick time. Remember, the BC NDP have their long-coveted majority. They are free to legislate as they please. Instead, they have chosen to stall.
Disgracefully, an NDP, supposedly worker-friendly, government has again lagged behind the conservative, pro-big business, Doug Ford government in Ontario. In the spring of 2020, Ford announced a ban on rental evictions during the pandemic before BC. Sadly, the bans in both provinces have ended while the pandemic continues. Ford had scrapped paid sick leave soon after becoming Premier in 2018 as part of his Making Ontario Open for Business Act. Under huge pressure from doctors and unions, on April 29 the Ford government had to change policy and agreed three days of sick leave paid by the employer. Although three days is not enough, it is better than what BC has.
The truth is, to improve the Employment Standards Act is to cross an invisible line. Under capitalism, the primary function of any government is to create favourable conditions for capital. One such condition is having a disciplined and precarious workforce. Though it’s a small step, legislated sick pay sets a dangerous precedent in the eyes of big business. It means more autonomous, and potentially emboldened workers. Moreover, it would mean surrendering part of their massive profits to labour. And big business has made clear it is against sick pay.
Any government that isn’t ready to fight on capital’s side will soon be fighting for its own life. This very scenario occurred with the NDP government led by Dave Barrett (1972-75). That NDP government carried out significant reforms that benefited working people such as establishing the province’s Labour Relations Board, providing public auto insurance, increasing the minimum wage, boosting corporate taxes and setting up the Agricultural Land Reserve.
Big business felt antagonized, so it mobilized its resources. Siding with the opposition, it launched a brutal election campaign fuelled by unprecedented spending. This was a fight the NDP did not win. Because of that defeat, it seems that the NDP in BC is more afraid of big business than Doug Ford is.
Some forty years later, governments are going to great lengths to avoid a similar showdown. The federal government sidestepped this issue with CRSB, footing the bill themselves. As we have seen, BC and most other provinces’ strategy is to do nothing, blame Ottawa and hope they are on the path of least resistance.
It is clear that no one in power is willing to fight for working people. Once that is clear, the next question moving ahead is: how to force their hand? Politicians don’t decide things on their own; they are influenced by outside pressure. Doug Ford certainly didn’t pass sick pay out of the goodness of his heart; it was COVID cases and immense pressure. In BC, this pressure is already building up in the form of a growing labour coalition.
The NDP in BC should be ashamed of lagging behind Doug Ford and needing pressure from unions, doctors and workers to do the right thing. Sick pay, paid by the employers, is a vital tool to fight COVID as governments finally admit that workplaces are a major source of spread. It is widely popular, with various polls finding around 75 percent support.
Sign the petition for sick pay.
It is past time that the NDP acted.
