The North Simcoe Muskoka & District Labour Council (NSMDLC) is calling on the provincial government to provide at least seven paid sick days to all workers always, and 14 paid sick days during public health crises.
This comes as public health officials, worker health and safety representatives, organizations and labour groups lobby Doug Ford's government to provide paid sick days that would allow ill employees to stay at home and help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
NSMDLC president Mike De Rose is upset that Ford and others have argued that paid sick days are a prohibitive expense, arguing that now is not the time to tack on additional expenses to small- and medium-sized businesses.
He says mandating paid sick days would not be a duplication of the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit, a federal program he says "falls considerably short" for most workers.
De Rose says the numbers don’t jive with either argument.
“3.9 million Ontarians do not have access to any paid sick leave, and most of those people are front-line, low-wage or otherwise marginalized or vulnerable people,” said De Rose.
“And as to the cost to business, we have to ask what is the cost of doing nothing? Employees who are low-wage earners or precariously employed are going into work sick. That’s happening today and it’s happening here in Simcoe-Muskoka.”
In Bracebridge, for example, Fenner Dunlop recently locked out their workers from United Steelworkers Local 7949, after workers would not accept new concessions - such as reducing the number of paid sick days for workers.
“During a global pandemic, in a community that is working hard to keep COVID-19 under control, and as the issue of paid sick days makes the almost-daily news cycle, we find this company totally tone deaf,” said De Rose.
“These workers are in a manufacturing setting, a setting that has been problematic in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the (Greater Toronto Area). They need paid sick days so that they can stay home and keep their colleagues safe if they develop symptoms, require a COVID test, or have to wait for results," he said.
Fenner Dunlop, a division of Michelin out of France, is no stranger to contentious negotiations, claims De Rose.
Negotiations in the last few previous contracts were "strained," he said. This time, according to USW 7949 representatives, there were over seven pages of concessions presented to members as part of a new contract offer.
De Rose says these jobs are important to the local economy.
“These are good paying jobs and the workers here are worthy of respect and of good-faith bargaining," said De Rose. "These are the kinds of jobs we want in Muskoka. Workers can support their families as well as the local economy, and, while treating workers well, employers can still make a lot of money in the process.”
De Rose said providing paid sick days has paid dividends elsewhere.
In a media release, the council noted that in other jurisdictions where paid sick days have been implemented, employers have reported no impact on their bottom line, and in some cases have even improved it by reducing employee turn-over, boosting morale, and raising worker productivity.
The NSMDLC is encouraging those who support paid sick days to contact their MPP and to demand that "vulnerable front-line workers are taken care of now and into the future."
