Paid Sick Days: A Matter of Workplace Justice and Public Health

As in most provinces and territories, non-unionized employees in Newfoundland and Labrador have no legislated entitlement to paid time off from work when they, or a family member they provide care for, are sick. Only Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and British Columbia legislate any paid sick days, the latter leading the way with five paid days in addition to three unpaid days. Under section 43.11(1) of the Labour Standards Act, workers in this province are entitled to a pitiful “7 days unpaid sick leave or family responsibility leave in a year.” 

As a matter of workplace justice and public health, our position is that all workers should have access to ten days employer-paid leave annually to care for themselves, or someone they care for, when they are sick. As with any other employment standard, this will not happen unless it is legislated. 

Last January, when the Workers’ Action Network called upon the Minister Responsible for Labour, Bernard Davis, to address this injustice, he replied that seven unpaid sick days “is a minimum standard and employers are free to offer” paid sick days if they so wish. The sad reality is that many, if not most employers, do not offer anything above that which is legislatively required of them. 

In 2022, the Workers’ Action Network conducted a General Worker Survey of low-wage workers across Newfoundland and Labrador, and the responses make clear that most low-wage workers in the province have no access to paid sick leave. Of 709 respondents, 54 percent reported no entitlement to paid sick leave at all. This is an injustice that disproportionately afflicts women (who provide the vast majority of unpaid care work for family members), as well as other marginalized workers over-represented in low wage work. 

Not only is the absence of legislated paid sick days counter to the provincial government’s claim that GBA+ is employed in policy decisions, but it also negatively affects workers beyond the loss of income if they stay home when sick. 

Once a worker exceeds seven days of unpaid sick leave in a year, it is considered broken service and the employer has no legal obligation to continue to employ the worker. Of the 47 percent of survey respondents who reported exceeding their sick leave entitlement, only 23 percent said their employer did not treat their additional sick days as broken service. 45 percent maintained their employment but with broken service, 20 percent took vacation time to cover the additional sick days, and 12 percent had their employment terminated. 

Broken service also means that employees go back to ‘Day 1’ when it comes to qualifying for other legislated entitlements, or employer-provided benefits, after a period of continuous employment. For example, a worker is not entitled to vacation time until being employed for twelve continuous months. A worker who exceeds their entitled sick days in the eleventh month will have to work for another continuous twelve months to qualify. A worker whose employment is terminated may lose out on some or all of their entitlement to pay in lieu of notice if they have exceeded seven sick days at any time during their employment. A worker who was due for a raise or other employer-provided benefits after a set period of employment will have to requalify for those benefits. 

Loss of income, however, remains the most significant injustice inflicted upon workers who have no access to paid sick leave. 

The absence of legislated ‘paid’ sick days combined with an insufficient number of ‘protected’ sick days is why 58 percent of survey respondents reported sometimes working while sick, and twenty percent reported always working while sick. This is understandable, as the loss of income for low-wage workers who stay home when sick often means the inability to afford rent, food, or other necessities at the best of times—let alone in the current inflationary environment. 

Since the start of the COVID pandemic, we have all repeatedly heard the mantra, “stay home when sick” in the interest of public health. This sage advice also applies to infectious illnesses other than COVID. Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alberta, advises that someone sick with a cold should stay home for 2-4 days and 5-7 days with the flu. Without access to legislated paid sick days, the call to “stay home when sick” places an impossible choice before low-wage workers. 

The federal government has addressed this unjust dilemma by legislating ten paid sick days for workers in the federally regulated private sector. Federal Labour Minister, Seamus O’Regan, has called on provincial governments to do the same. “Workers shouldn’t have to pay for doing the right thing,” he said in November. “Ten days of paid sick leave means they won’t have to.” 

The federally legislated paid sick leave is good public policy, not only for the financial and physical well-being of workers and their families, but also for public health as a whole. It is long past time for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to do the same.