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Legislated paid sick days missing health-reform link

MONIKA DUTT & JASON EDWARDS Monika Dutt is a public health and family physician, Decent Work and Health Network. Jason Edwards is an employment lawyer at Pink Larkin and board member, Halifax Workers’ Action Centre.

Workers without paid sick days are three times more likely to delay or forgo medical care and twice as likely to visit the emergency room. This is an unnecessary cost and burden for the health-care system.

Given the focus on health care throughout the provincial election campaign, Nova Scotians are rightly expecting their new government to deliver on improvements to health. Not surprisingly, Premier Tim Houston’s first extended media conference on Sept. 1 emphasized access to care, including health-care professionals and mental health services.

Access is essential, but what would be a welcome addition to this government’s commitment to health is legislated paid sick days.

Health-care funding without addressing the underlying social conditions that shape our individual and community health will only get us so far. As the Canadian Medical Association has outlined, health care contributes to about 25 per cent of our overall health. The other factors that contribute to health include labour policies, income, housing, education, racism and the environment we live in.

Paid sick days is a key policy that health providers, experts, and worker advocates have been calling for for many years. It has become even more urgent during the COVID-19 pandemic. When directly asked about legislated paid sick days, Premier Houston replied that he needed to partner with the federal government. In fact, most workers rely on provincial employment standards for workplace protection. Without provincial action, workers who have been facing the greatest risks throughout the pandemic will continue to face those risks.

Premier Houston has said that wants to ensure Nova Scotians have health care when they become ill. A lack of paid sick days illustrates the limits of that approach.

Legislating paid sick days would be good public health and healthcare policy. Time and time again throughout the pandemic, we have seen that paid sick days would benefit both the people who are sick and those around them. People frequently come to work sick, often because they can’t afford the lost income, which is both bad for their health and has contributed to the spread of the COVID-19 virus in workplaces.

Beyond the pandemic, paid sick days would help limit the spread of many other infections — for example, we’ve seen a reduction in flu virus transmission when there are measures such as paid sick days in place.

Paid sick days also give people time to see their primary care providers for preventive care, both for them and their children. Workers without paid sick days are three times more likely to delay or forgo medical care and twice as likely to visit the emergency room. This is an unnecessary cost and burden for the health-care system.

Legislating paid sick days would also be an indication of the government’s commitment to addressing the needs of those who are most marginalized.

This government has been noted for its lack of representation of groups that are historically underrepresented in government leadership. These are the same groups that are least likely to have paid sick days in Nova Scotia, according to a recent report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA): people who are Black, Indigenous and racialized, women, youth, those who are income-deprived, have a high school education or less, and/or people with different abilities.

Nova Scotia’s Labour Standards Code currently states that workers are entitled to only three days of unpaid sick leave per year, making it among the least supportive standards in the country. Nova Scotia had a temporary paid sick leave program that provided up to four paid sick days, but it ended July

31. Once again, workers are left without protection when trying to follow public health advice to stay home when they are sick.

Going forward, what is needed is a legislated standard that ensures paid sick days meet the following criteria:

• They need to be universal: accessible to all workers.

• Adequate: At least 10 paid days at minimum.

• Permanent: Short-term measures are not enough; the need goes far beyond a few months of a pandemic.

• Seamless: There should be no administrative burden on the worker, and no delay in payment.

• Employer Paid: Unpaid days are little use to people who can’t afford not to work.

And, last, employer-paid. As stated by the CCPA, “Employers should not have the right to employ workers under conditions that compromise health and safety and then pass the costs to the public.”

Forty-two per cent of small businesses already offer paid sick days (while only 41 per cent of large firms do); legislated paid sick days would get us to 100 per cent.

Legislating at least 10 paid sick days would decrease pressure on the health-care system, and, most importantly, send a message to workers that protecting their health is a priority.

OPINION

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2021-09-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

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