Workers should get 15 paid sick days, says BC Federation of Labour

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Workers in BC need more than the five paid sick days currently available under provincial legislation, according to the BC Federation of Labour (BCFED). 

At the recent BCFED convention, over 1,000 delegates from dozens of unions across the province voted to support a motion aimed at expanding paid sick days. The motion calls for lobbying the government for 15 days of paid sick leave, along with educating employers and workers about the benefits of taking them, and removing the 90-day probationary period before employees are eligible for sick pay.

“We’re hearing stories, more and more, about workers not being able to make ends meet and worried about losing their jobs,” Sussanne Skidmore, newly elected BCFED president, told the Straight. “They have to make the tough choice about whether or not to go to work sick.”

BC currently has the most generous sick day policy in Canada. Workers can take five days off annually, with their employer covering the cost. That came into effect at the beginning of 2022, as a compromise between workers’ groups like BCFED that advocated for more time off, and business groups that claimed paid sick leave would be too expensive for employers. 

Other countries around the world have more comprehensive sick leave legislation. BCFED released a report in 2021 detailing some, including New Zealand and Australia (10 days per year), Sweden (14 days paid at 80 per cent of wage) and Germany (up to 30 days per year).

A 2021 report by economist Jim Stanford at the Centre for Future Work found that a 10-day sick leave policy would increase business costs by 0.21 per cent. Several factors blunted the cost, including the fact that not every worker would claim all of their entitled sick pay every year. 

One of the main upsides to paid sick days is that it helps prevent the spread of infectious diseases. 

“During the pandemic, whole entire places had to shut down because everyone was sick in the worksite,” Skidmore said. Workers didn’t have “a bit of choice to be able to make those decisions, and not risk losing their job.” So people went to work sick, illnesses spread, and the costs to businesses were much higher than if they had simply paid sick staff to stay home in the first place, she explained.

Five days covers one week of illness. With the continuing COVID pandemic, rising flu levels, the mass return to in-person employment, and high levels of illness in children, it is simply “more realistic” that workers need the ability to take more time off to look after themselves or their family without worrying about losing income, or their jobs.

The 90-day probationary period means that, besides new employees being unable to take time off, many different workers in contract-based industries like construction or film are entirely excluded from the legislation.

“You’re doing a show for Netflix, and it’s a 45-day gig, and then you’re [done] and then you’ve got to start your 90 days again. Or you’re building something and your job is for 60 days, then you move on to the next construction site,” Skidmore said. “Those folks are never, ever covered by paid sick leave. They’ve been left right out of the calculation.”

Fiona Famulak, president of the BC Chamber of Commerce, told the CBC that the increase in sick days would be “catastrophic,” and said that it was “premature” to call for an expansion to the sick day program only one year into it. In a 2021 statement, Famulak said introducing permanent sick pay would be “a gut punch” to small businesses.

When asked by the Tyee, provincial Labour Minister Harry Bains did not commit to increasing the number of paid sick days, nor to removing the 90-day probationary period before employees are eligible. 

“You need to establish yourself as an employee. That means that you are committed to the employer,” he said.

Skidmore said that BCFED would be looking at its strategy priorities in the new year to figure out how to push for more coverage. Other areas of concern include the fact that many app-based workers are entirely excluded from sick pay, as they are classified as self-employed. She hopes her two-year term as president will see further expansion of the sick pay program.

“This is just part of our strategic planning in our campaign to continue to make sure that workers have access to paid sick leave,” she said.