{"id":15859,"date":"2021-01-14T20:42:20","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T01:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=15859"},"modified":"2021-01-26T02:12:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T07:12:44","slug":"ford-government-facing-pressure-to-institute-paid-sick-days-in-covid-19-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/ford-government-facing-pressure-to-institute-paid-sick-days-in-covid-19-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford government facing pressure to institute paid sick days in COVID-19 response"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(January 13, 2021)<\/p>\n<p>By: Ricardo Veneza, CTV Windsor<\/p>\n<p>WINDSOR, ONT. &#8212; The Ontario government is facing continued pressure to reinstitute paid sick days in the province as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, the Official Opposition at Queen\u2019s Park renewed calls for the Doug Ford-led government for paid sick days to be legislated to help Ontarians abide by stay-at-home orders to limit spread of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor countless essential workers, calling in sick means their family will go to bed hungry. They just can\u2019t afford to miss shifts,\u201d said Jamie West, the NDP Labour Relations Critic, in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>In December, the New Democrats proposed the Stay Home If You Are Sick Act to introduce 10 personal emergency leave days per year for every worker \u2013 seven of which are paid.<\/p>\n<p>The former NDP Member of Parliament for Essex, Tracey Ramsey, now serving as a co-chair of the Windsor-Essex Chapter of the Ontario Health Coalition, agrees with the party\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWorking people need to have supports to be able to stay home,\u201d said Ramsey in an interview with CTV News. \u201cAbsent that, trying to access a government program at the federal level can take weeks if not months for people to receive that money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/services\/benefits\/ei\/ei-sickness.html\">Employment Insurance Sickness Benefit<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>offers up to 55 per cent of earnings to a maximum of $595 a week.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to CTV News, the Office of the Minister, Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, said the federal government created the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit which was supported by all parties, to offer workers with paid sick leave if it is not provided by their provincial government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is an important part of our COVID-19 response to support Canadians and stop the spread of the virus. We did this so that no worker \u2013 regardless of where they live in Canada, or who they work for \u2013 has to choose between going to work while impacted by COVID-19 and putting food on the table,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government is funding the temporary benefit while provinces and territories are to establish job-protected sick leave \u201cthrough regulation or legislation if not already available, the statement continued.<\/p>\n<p>This allows workers to take up to 10 days of leave related to COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>Ramsey says the measure is not sufficient, and there appears to be consensus on the issue across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n<p>The mayors in Toronto and Brampton, both former leaders of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, John Tory and Patrick Brown, called on the province Wednesday to add paid sick days as an option for workers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe provincial and federal response is still missing something pretty significant, and that\u2019s paid sick days,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n<p>The Ford government cut two paid sick days offered in Ontario in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, a spokesperson for Ontario\u2019s labour ministry in a statement pointed to a partnership with the federal and provincial governments in the summer which\u00a0<span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/toronto.ctvnews.ca\/toronto-s-top-doctor-calls-on-provincial-government-to-implement-10-day-emergency-paid-sick-leave-1.5261859\">secured paid sick leave for workers through the Canada sickness benefit<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoug Ford cut Ontario\u2019s two measly paid sick days and now refuses to give Ontarians any paid sick days during COVID-19, because he doesn\u2019t want to spend more on everyday working folks,\u201d said West.<\/p>\n<p>In Windsor, the measure seems to have plenty of support as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt puts pressure on people to go to work right?\u201d said Egidaio Masaro. \u201cProbably makes it a little easier to make that decision if you didn\u2019t have to so, you just don\u2019t feel that you need to pay the bills, go to work, put yourself in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Windsorites like Melanie Galang who have been laid off, getting back to work is a focus but, there remains concern about the COVID-19 risk and the support available to allow residents to adhere to public health recommendations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSavings is really tight,\u201d said Galang. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard so, I guess it\u2019s really better if you have paid sick days off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The measure also spawned a \u2018die-in\u2019 protest Wednesday at Queen\u2019s Park in Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>Advocates with the\u00a0<span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.decentworkandhealth.org\/\">Decent Work and Health Network<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>called on the government to allow workers to take paid sick days to protect themselves and prevent further spread of the virus.<\/p>\n<p>According to the group, 58 per cent of Canadian workers do not have paid sick days.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/windsor.ctvnews.ca\/ford-government-facing-pressure-to-institute-paid-sick-days-in-covid-19-response-1.5265784\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Click here for original article<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(January 13, 2021) By: Ricardo Veneza, CTV Windsor WINDSOR, ONT. &#8212; The Ontario government is facing continued pressure to reinstitute paid sick days in the province as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, the Official Opposition at Queen\u2019s Park renewed calls for the Doug Ford-led government for paid sick days to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ford government facing pressure to institute paid sick days in COVID-19 response - Ontario Health Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(January 13, 2021) By: Ricardo Veneza, CTV Windsor WINDSOR, ONT. -- The Ontario government is facing continued pressure to reinstitute paid sick days in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/ford-government-facing-pressure-to-institute-paid-sick-days-in-covid-19-response\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ford government facing pressure to institute paid sick days in COVID-19 response - 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