Some Nova Scotians are calling for paid sick leave because they say the government’s decision to lift the latest COVID-19 health orders will weigh on families who may feel compelled to go to work while they are suffering from the disease.
NDP Labor Critic Kendra Coombes says she has been overwhelmed by voter concerns after Chief Medical Officer Dr Robert Strang said earlier this week that all restrictions in the event pandemic would be lifted on Wednesday.
“A constant that I hear is that people can’t afford not to work, but they also want to be responsible and not spread the disease,” she said in an interview on Tuesday.
“And now that extra protection has been taken away,” Coombes said of the mandatory isolation policy, noting that immunocompromised workers are particularly affected.
Strang said on Monday that people who test positive for COVID-19 or have COVID-19-like symptoms should self-isolate if possible but would no longer be required to. He said the government was also changing its guidelines on masking and limiting PCR tests to certain high-risk groups.
Asked if he was worried the change would lead to people with COVID-19 continuing to work and potentially infecting others, Strang said it was a “long-standing issue. “predating COVID-19.
Government and the business sector, he said, should understand “how we are doing a better job of helping people stay at home” when they are sick.
Coombes says establishing permanent paid sick leave is critical because the majority of Nova Scotians are not paid while on sick leave. Nova Scotia labor standards, meanwhile, allow workers to have at least three days a year that they can be sick – without being paid.
In a study published in 2021, the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives research institute found that 54% of working Nova Scotians had no paid sick days and 69% of workers earning less than $25,000 a year did not have paid sick leave.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the province temporarily implemented a program that covered up to four paid sick days per person between May and July 2021, and again between April and May 2022.
Coombes says she would like to see that program reinstated to accompany the end of isolation restrictions, but she says a permanent sick leave policy is needed beyond COVID-19.
A spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Department of Labor said the province has no plans to extend its temporary sick leave program. “We continue to encourage employees and employers to discuss how best to support each other when someone is sick,” Marla McInnis said in an email.
Christine Saulnier, Nova Scotia director of the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, said in an interview Tuesday that lifting the mandatory isolation order would worsen working conditions for Nova Scotians.
“Now that there is no more government mandate, no more precautionary principles in place, the pressure will be put on workers to get sick,” she said.
“Two and a half years into a pandemic, we should have learned the lesson that workers don’t deserve to go to work sick.”
This article was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta-Canadian Press News Fellowship, which is not involved in the editorial process.
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