A big push is underway for BC to triple its paid sick leave days

Dec 7 2022, 1:23 am

Should the BC government triple the number of sick leave days required in the province?

That is the big push coming from the BC Federation of Labour, whose members voted Tuesday to lobby the provincial government for at least 15 days of employer-paid illness or injury leave, and five days of paid family responsibility leave annually for all workers.

The BC Federation of Labour president, Sussanne Skidmore, said more needs to be done when it comes to the province’s approach and that the current way employers handle sick leave is leaving a lot of people out.

“We want to eliminate eligibility requirements that leave out many workers — in film and construction, for example — whose employment goes from project to project. Illness doesn’t care if a worker has or hasn’t been working for 90 days; paid sick leave shouldn’t either,” Skidmore said.

Currently, if someone has worked a job for more than three months they are entitled to be paid out five sick days as well as receive three unpaid sick days per year.

“We also believe strongly that five days of paid sick leave was a start, but it falls well short of what workers need and what the public supports. The federal government has now set the bar at 10 days. And many places outside Canada are offering a lot more,” she added.

Meantime, BC’s minister of labour said the province has already taken big steps in terms of sick pay as it was the first and remains the only province to legislate five days of paid sick leave.

“After broad consultation with workers, employers, health experts, and other stakeholders, we heard that five days was a fair and balanced way forward for our province. Paid sick leave is an important way we can support workers and help prevent the transmission of disease,” Harry Bains said in a statement on Tuesday.

It wasn’t exactly an easy feat bringing in five days to begin with.

Among the critics of the plan remains many small business owners who are worried about their bottom line in the midst of an already challenging economy.

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, 84% of BC small businesses cannot afford 10 paid sick days, let alone 15 days.

The federation said 15 employer-paid sick days will cost a BC small business with 10 median wage employees $51,000, money they likely don’t have as costs keep rising.

“Our concern with this has always been the lack of consultation with small business owners, the costs associated with paid sick days, and with who should shoulder the costs of the policy,” Senior Policy Analyst Jairo Yunis said.

“Tripling the number of employer-paid sick days will be a devastating blow to BC small businesses that are struggling to cope with inflationary pressures, rising interest rates, and labour shortages.”

Yunis said increasing the number of sick days is not the answer and wants the government to reevaluate the current model of five days as well.

“We are asking the government to shift the cost burden of paid sick days from small businesses to government and to not increase the number of days. The original commitment from the government was that they were not going to impose these costs on businesses – at one time they reimbursed them during the pandemic,” Yunis said.

Do you think BC should increase the number of mandatory paid sick days? Let us know in the comments.

Claire FentonClaire Fenton

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