How the Coronavirus has exposed Canada's desperate need for a national paid sick-leave program
Written by: Daniel Xie
The World Health Organization has recently declared the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak from Wuhan, China, a pandemic. Currently, while the rate of infection in China seems to have slowed down, large numbers of Coronavirus cases have emerged worldwide, with more than 100 confirmed cases as of March of 2020 in Canada. Some countries, such as Italy, has been hit extremely hard by the pandemic, with the entire country going into quarantine following more than 10,000 reported cases of coronavirus and around 631 deaths so far. As the virus spreads, there have been more and more people calling for other countries to implement their own quarantines.
In British Columbia, which has the most cases of Coronavirus, three Metro Vancouver schools have been closed to prevent the spread of the Novel Coronavirus in large areas. In Ontario, all publicly funded schools are set to close for two weeks after March Break. Already, major sporting organizations such as the NBA, have cancelled games, the World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal has been canceled, and prime minister Justin Trudeau has been going into self-quarantine and there are calls for president Donald Trump to do so as well. The world now awaits with baited breath how this disease outbreak will evolve and if a vaccine will be found soon.
Yet, even as the media is abuzz about the pandemic and the next move that governments should take to resolve this crisis, one thing that is not talked about by the mainstream media is how the spread of the Coronavirus ultimately is a failure of capitalism. As John Clarke explains perfectly on his article Building Resistance in Desperate Times, the Coronavirus may have been a consequence of the dislocation of animals such as bats that may carry the virus from their habitats as a result of ecological devastation. In addition, according to Clarke, any sort of response to a mass pandemic such as the Coronavirus outbreak would be negatively impacted not only by the lack of an affordable, robust, healthcare system ready to take on the crisis, but also by the massive income inequality and homelessness that persist in cities such as Toronto. This is because, as the best way of currently handling the disease is to isolate the infected for 14 days, homeless people in Toronto would be the most vulnerable as they would have nowhere to go or would only be able to seek refuge in crowded shelters. This consequently makes it very easy for homeless people to get infected and spread the disease to others they meet in shelters or run into in the city streets.
As the best way currently of fighting the COVID-19 outbreak is self-isolation, any sort of initiative taken to fight COVID-19 must provide opportunities for people to self-isolate. As mentioned above, this initiative is doomed to fail if homeless people are not provided the opportunity to self-isolate themselves by the municipal government. In addition to the homeless, another segment of the population that the government must deal with in order to provide an effective Coronavirus response are those that have to stop working in order to self-isolate themselves, as well as those that have to pay for childcare or mortgage costs and have no way of being able to pay for these costs if they have to lose days of work in order to deal with the threat of Coronavirus infection. A plan for containing the Coronavirus must therefore contain a plan for employment security.
Currently, neither the Federal nor Provincial governments have yet to effectively provide the necessary means to deal with the spread of the Coronavirus on the level of employment security. The topic of employment security has not even come up in any discussion related to the Coronavirus on the provincial level, even as provincial governments are debating whether to close schools or not in order to contain the spread of the Coronavirus outbreak. Nor has it been brought forward by the federal government. In their response to the Coronavirus outbreak. However, in not putting forth a plan to ensure that employees receive any form of security, the Federal government makes self-isolation much more untenable, as any opportunities for employees to go into isolation will be handled by companies themselves. They will decide when it would be a good time for someone employed under them to go into self-isolation. This means that corporations may be complicit in the spread of COVID-19 if they do not allow their employees to self-isolate in time that display symptoms.
In addition, an employee’s desire to either avoid the coronavirus, or avoid spreading it to others are also negatively affected if their ability to self-isolate is left entirely to the mercy of the corporations. This is because an employee who is displaying symptoms, or knows people in the workplace displaying symptoms and wants to avoid either being infected or spreading it to others by isolating themselves, aren’t allowed to do so by their employer. They also may risk getting fired if they decide to place their safety first and self-isolate themselves if they employers do not agree with their action.
Employees being forced to work in the midst of this epidemic is something we’re already seeing in the United States. According to ABC news on Twitter, a man with coronavirus ignored instructions to self-isolate pending test results, choosing instead to work several shifts at Hobart's Grand Chancellor Hotel. Leftists and progressives on twitter have pointed out that while people need to miss work to better care for themselves and avoid spreading the Coronavirus to others, the ability to get a sick day is a luxury few have. They point out for instance, that it is really easy to be fired if an employee misses work in a retail/service job, and if they get fired they would also lose their health insurance. Consequently, employees, facing a tough work environment, will lose the opportunity to self-isolate themselves while their employers seek to gain more and more profit even as their employees health suffers in the midst of an epidemic.
Health professionals and labour activists have suggested an extensive safety net in order to deal with the growing threat of the Coronavirus outbreak in North America that would make it easier for workers to self-isolate. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, a labour coalition led by the Chicago Teachers Union held a conference in the Chicago City Hall on Mar. 11, to demand various steps to be taken to solve the crisis. These steps include 15 paid sick leave days a year, the provision of adequate cleaning supplies, debt forgiveness, suspended mortgage payments, a citywide meals-on-wheels, and internet access for students forced to stay at home due to the Coronavirus.
In Canada, the Decent Work & Health network, a coalition of healthcare professionals, held a press conference on Mar. 12, to urge the Ontario government and the federal government to bring in comprehensive emergency measures to contain COVID-19, as well as ward against seasonal diseases such as the flu. These measures call on the provincial government to implement seven paid sick days for all workers, allowing employers to ask for sick days without a doctor’s note, and the restoration of ten protected sick leave days for workers. Many of these provisions were originally removed by Doug Ford as mayor.
With regards to the Federal government, the Decent Work & Health network calls for the federal government to implement emergency measures allowing for greater access to Employment Insurance, the creation of an emergency fund for those experiencing a loss or interruption of earnings and those who can’t access employment Insurance, and the implementation of at least seven paid sick days for all federally-regulated workers. These initiatives have been supported by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who stated on March 12th that the Liberal plan to combat COVID-19; which involves $1 billion used to provide assistance to federal responses, international responses and public health responses to the virus, is letting down workers. This is because the vast majority of workers-around 60 per cent, would not be supported by the funding, and that they stand to benefit more from a national paid sick leave program.
Singh’s statement that 60% of the work force stands to not benefit from the current Coronavirus plan is validated by the plight that gig workers face as a result of the outbreak. Trudeau claimed that “no one should have to worry about their job” with regards to the Coronavirus, and made it easier for employment insurance to be acquired through waiving the one-week waiting period. However, this benefit does not affect gig workers that work in services such as Uber driving due to the fact that they have to work a large number of minimum hours a week to even qualify for EI (420-700 hours), which many gig workers find difficult or cannot even attain. Due to structural barriers already in place, Justin Trudeau’s current plan leaves many gig workers, the number of which has been rising significantly as of recent, out in the cold. Even worse for gig workers such as those working with Uber, the Coronavirus would mean less opportunities for people to travel, and this would translate into less wages for Uber workers.
Overall, the Coronavirus pandemic shows us that sick leave safety and benefits to allow people to isolate themselves without fear of job insecurity are more needed than ever. Without a strong sick leave safety net and protections to sick leaves in place, people will have no way of safely going into self-isolation. They will face either difficulty of paying for childcare and mortgage without a steady income, as well as facing the threat of termination if they decide to self-isolate without the approval of an employer. This doesn’t even delve into the lack of protection that gig workers have that would make them ineligible to receive employment insurance, along with a lack of opportunities for them to earn wages during the pandemic that would make their prospects of meeting the EI criteria even more troublesome. Times of crisis call for measures needed to protect and safeguard the population from harm or to give them a way to protect themselves, and the best way to safeguard the population during this pandemic is to allow the population to care for themselves securely without fear of unemployment.
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