‘Another blow’ to Ontario’s health care system: Critics slam province for scrapping paid sick leave

Although temporary, the measure was extended several times — and advocates hoped to see workers win the right to ten permanent paid sick days a year.

“This is such a basic health and labour standard,” said Deena Ladd of the Toronto-based Workers’ Action Centre.

As first reported by The Canadian Press, the province will end its sick day initiative later this month. In a statement to the Star, a Ministry of Labour spokesperson said the temporary paid sick days were “designed to support people who needed to take time off work to isolate or get vaccinated.”

“Ontario has now achieved one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, and consistent with the sunset date for this program, it will expire effective March 31, 2023.”

Ladd said she was “frustrated and angry” at the decision, which she said will heighten financial insecurity and increase health risks for workers who have to choose between a day’s income and going to work sick — be it with COVID or other infectious illnesses.

“It’s shocking that (the province) is not putting in place a measure that every medical health officer has said is something workers need to stay safe.”

Dr. Bernard Ho, an emergency and family physician who belongs to the Decent Work and Health Network (DWHN) said in a statement that the move had “delivered another blow to Ontario’s health care system” amid overcrowding in hospitals.

“Paid sick days are good for the health care system because they facilitate access to primary care while workers with paid sick days and their children are less likely to rely on the emergency department,” says a 2022 DWHN report.

Medical experts, including Toronto’s medical officer of health, repeatedly called on the province to introduce permanent paid sick days during the pandemic — citing concern that sick employees did not have the financial ability to isolate when infectious.

As previously reported by the Star, the sites of some of Toronto’s largest workplace outbreaks did not offer their employees paid sick days.

Ontario subsequently introduced a program that reimbursed employers $200 a day, up to a maximum of $600, for workers who required time off for COVID symptoms or to get vaccinated. An estimated 500,000 workers have used the program to date.

While employer organizations like the Ontario Chamber of Commerce called the measure a “step in the right direction to protect essential workers,” business groups have argued they cannot afford to bear the cost of mandatory, employer-paid sick days.

Ontario’s previous Liberal government introduced two mandatory paid sick days in 2017, but the measure was rolled back under the Ford government.

According to a Statistics Canada study, around half of Canadian workers had access to sick days as the country entered the pandemic in March 2020.

But that figure plummeted for precarious workers: just one in 10 temporary, seasonal, and casual workers had paid sick days.

Ontario Federation of Labour president Patty Coates called it “astounding that Doug Ford’s Conservatives would abandon the most minimal protections when the overwhelming evidence shows that legislated employer-paid sick days can save lives.”

“To make matters worse, Ford’s decision is in direct opposition to the 80% of Ontarians who support our call for at least 10 days of permanent paid sick leave paid for by employers.”

Thursday’s budget focuses on skills training as a core piece of the province’s labour strategy, commiting $75 million over three years for a skills development fund, as well as an additional $224 million to expand training centres.

Dr. Monika Dutt, a family physician and public health expert who also belongs to DWHN, said racialized and low-income workers would be disproportionately impacted by gaps in sick day protections.

“We know that having paid sick days in the end leads to lower mortality rates, decreases cancer rates, and also helps to increase vaccination rates,” she said.

Ladd said paid sick days are particularly important as the province grapples with an affordability crisis — making it harder for precarious workers to lose out on pay when they fall ill.

“These are the essential jobs that we all claimed were hero jobs,” she said. “Those heroes are emerging from the pandemic with no paid sick days. I don’t think that that is anything to be proud about.”