In light of the world coronavirus emergency, more than 175 Ontario health workers have signed an open letter urging the Ford government to restore paid sick day policies that were cancelled a year ago.

“Public health officials recommend that if you have mild cold-like symptoms, you should stay home while sick,” says the letter by the Decent Work and Health Network.

“However, recent labour law changes under the Ford government mean that workers cannot follow this advice,” says the letter sent Tuesday to the premier, Health Minister Christine Elliott and Labour Minister Monte McNaughton.

“Evidence shows paid sick days are a vital measure to decrease the spread of illness and ensure proper recovery,” says the letter, signed by doctors, nurses, personal support workers and public health workers.

“In the context of recent concerns with the novel coronavirus in Ontario, we consider the current provincial labour laws to be a serious threat to the health and safety of Ontarians,” adds the letter, also copied to other provincial and federal health officials, including Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, the public health officer of Canada, Public Health Ontario and Toronto’s medical officer of health.

In January 2019, the Ford government reduced job-protected personal emergency leave from 10 to eight days, with no paid sick days. (Reforms enacted a year earlier by the previous Wynne government allowed two paid sick days.)

Unpaid personal emergency leave was further restricted by allowing just three days for personal illness, three days for a family emergency and two days for bereavement. Previously, workers could use emergency leave as required.

The province also restored a provision allowing employers to require sick notes from health providers before workers can take emergency leave. The move was criticized by the medical profession as an unnecessary burden on the health-care system and counter to good public health.

Requiring sick notes “goes against all public health advice that urges people with mild illnesses to rest at home and not expose others to infection, particularly vulnerable patients at busy medical clinics,” said network co-ordinator Carolina Jimenez, a registered nurse. Since the notes are not covered by OHIP, the policy also disadvantages low-income workers who may already be losing a day’s pay, she added.

A spokesperson for McNaughton defended the government’s changes.

“This legislation does not make medical notes a requirement. Instead, employers are now given the option to confirm whether a worker is unable to work due to illness when they believe it is appropriate to do so,” Bradley Metlin said in an email.

“We believe this is a balanced and fair approach,” he added. “We will continue to follow the direction of Ontario’s chief medical officer of health for managing the coronavirus.”

Many workers cannot follow their health-care providers’ recommendations to stay home and rest because it means losing wages, said Jimenez.

This is particularly problematic for low-wage workers such as food handlers, staff in acute care or long-term care facilities and those caring for young children, she added.

“Not only are they risking their own health by not taking care of themselves at home, but they are putting others at risk.”

For example, Jimenez recently advised a receptionist with chills and nausea to stay home, but she continued to work because losing pay meant she would have trouble paying rent.

“Instead of being sick for two or three days, the woman’s illness dragged on for more than 10 days. She actually became quite ill,” said Jimenez, who also has a master’s degree in public health. “All the while, she was infecting people coming into the clinic as well as co-workers.”

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Medical studies “consistently” show people with no sick leave are more likely to go to work and expose others to infection, she noted.

Research also shows that if these workers have children who are sick, they have no choice but to send them to school sick because they can’t afford to stay home with them or to pay for a babysitter, the letter adds.

“A lack of paid sick days results in children and adults transmitting infections at school and work, exacerbating contagion throughout the province,” it says.

A U.S. study of the H1N1 virus outbreak in the fall of 2009 found nearly eight million infected employees in the U.S. took no time off work, likely due to the lack of paid sick days. The study estimates an additional seven million people were subsequently infected by those ill workers.

“Two of five private sector employees have no access to paid sick days, leaving the nation ill-prepared for the H1N1 ‘swine flu’ pandemic or for future outbreaks of contagious diseases,” says the 2010 study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

Last September, Canada’s federal government introduced five job-protected personal emergency days — including three that are paid — for workers in federally regulated industries such as banks, airlines and telecommunications.

Quebec also gives all workers five days of job-protected emergency leave, including two paid days.

Meanwhile, Ontario workers have no legislated right to paid sick days. They have just three days of unpaid job-protected leave for personal illness and may be required to provide a sick note in order to access that leave, the letter says.

The health workers say the Ford government should reinstate 10 days of flexible personal emergency leave with seven of those days paid. They are also calling for a ban on sick notes.

The novel coronavirus, first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, has spread to 26 countries and prompted the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency.

Ontario confirmed its first case on Jan. 27 in a man who had just returned from Wuhan. Since then, there have been two more confirmed cases, including the spouse of the first case and one in London, Ont. All have recovered or are recovering.

There are currently 29 people in Ontario under investigation for the virus, including three cases expected to test negative. All had travelled to Wuhan.

Although the risk in Ontario remains low, Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, told reporters Monday the province continues “to be vigilant.”

With files from Rob Ferguson

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