Council has approved some provisions for town staff who may have to go into self-isolation due to the pandemic.
A report presented this week by Lindsay Barron, chief administrative officer, told council that employees will be able to receive at 75% of their regular gross wages for the two weeks they have to be in self-isolation. Each employee will have 10 days available for their use, as four of the days in the two weeks are weekends, she said.
Employees are able to top-up this amount to 100% of gross earnings by using earned vacation time or banked lieu time.
The three conditions under which these provisions kick in are:
- An employee, who is experiencing any or a combination of symptoms of COVID-19, and is not entitled to or not yet entitled to short-term disability benefits.
- An employee that has been in close contact with someone else experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or has been diagnosed with the disease.
- An employee, who is required to stay at home to care for a family member, including spouse, child, step-child, parent, or a dependemt relative, and has been directed by the public health authority to self-isolate.
- An employee, who has returned to Canada after March 3, or has travelled outside of Canada prior to Match 17.
- An employee, who is required to stay at home and care for a dependent child, when that child is required to self-isolate due to travel outside of Canada after March 3, or travelled outside of Canada before March 17.
Coun. Paul Raymond sought clarification around how it affects staff who work weekends.
Peter Dance, director of public works, responded: "Certainly when you're sick you're only paid for your scheduled time and everybody's schedule is 40 hours a week. And 10 days covers you for those days."
Deputy Mayor Gerard LaChapelle asked about those who have to be at home because they have to look after their children, who are at home due to school closure, and not necessarily because they're unwell.
"Are we giving them 10 days, too? If we're doing this across the board, why are we not addressing that part?" he said.
Barron said she had had a couple of employees approach her about this.
"There are some options available to them," she said. "If they've got lieu time or vacation time, they could draw on that to stay home with their child right now."
As well, Coun. Mary Warnock said, the government has come out with funding for people who have to stay home due to childcare reasons.
"There are other funding programs to access, so they're not completely without help," she said.
These are special conditions only applicable with respect to COVID-19, said Joanne Sanders, treasurer and director of finance.
"One of the goals for this policy was to ensure people didn't come in sick. And that was the protection of other staff members," she said.
Further, the policy approved by council stated that an employee who is not experiencing symptoms will be expected to make every effort to continue working from home and be available to other staff during regular work hours.
However, the policy doesn't cover employees, who disregarded travel advisories and government recommendations to restrict non-essential travel after March 17. The self-isolation sick-bank is renewable at the discretion of the CAO.
