How much paid sick leave should be offered in B.C.? Residents can weigh in until Monday

B.C. will implement employer-paid sick leave in 2022, but whether the model requires three, five or 10 days of coverage has yet to be decided.

Monday is British Columbians’ last chance to weigh in on proposals for a paid sick leave for workers in the province.

B.C. has passed legislation that will implement employer-paid sick leave starting Jan. 1, 2022 — but just how many days will be covered has yet to be determined.

The province is now seeking public feedback on whether the requirement should cover three, five or 10 days of leave.

With just a day left for people to comment, the BC Federation of Labour is strongly promoting the 10-day option, arguing that other OECD countries like Australia, New Zealand and Sweden meet that bar or greater.

President Laird Cronk said the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw multiple business closures related to employees heading to work sick in workplaces ranging from meat processing to manufacturing to restaurants, showed the need for robust coverage.

“What we know for sure is that people went to work sick in the pandemic … we’ve seen it in multiple locations, because they didn’t have the means to stay home, they were so worried about paying the bills, paying the rent, and they didn’t have paid sick leave, so they made the untenable decision to go to work,” he said.

“What we know is other folks got sick, other folks took that back to their families, their communities, and in the COVID era that can have tragic results.”

While the maximal proposal is attractive to labour, business groups have expressed concern about the affordability of such a program to employers.