Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan says the government is open to amending legislation that would provide 10 days of paid sick leave for federally regulated workers.
O’Regan acknowledges that at least two provisions of Bill C-3 could undermine the goal, which is to ensure sick workers don’t have to choose between going to work sick or staying home without pay.
The bill would allow employers to require a doctor’s note verifying that an employee is sick.
Senators on a committee doing a preliminary study of the bill say it doesn’t make sense on several fronts, including the fact that a person with COVID-19 symptoms can’t even walk into a doctor’s office these days. and that it would inhibit workers. to take sick leave.
As the bill is drafted, workers would accumulate their 10 days of paid sick leave at the rate of one day per month.
Senators say it would help a worker who contracts COVID-19 or another disease little within a month or two of the bill’s enactment.
O’Regan told the Senate social affairs committee on Monday that the government is open to amendments on both issues.
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Sen. Patricia Bovey, a member of the Progressive Senate Panel, asked why the bill does not start from the premise that every worker is entitled to 10 days of paid sick leave each year, starting immediately.
O’Regan said that is an issue where the government “would be open to suggestions and what I would say is, ‘Give it to me in writing so we can take a look at it.”
“Oh, it will come in writing,” Bovey assured him.
The government is open to amending the paid sick leave bill that it wants passed before the weekend. #CDNPoli
Sen. Frances Lankin, a member of the Independent Senators Group, told O’Regan that she is in the process of drafting an amendment on that issue, while her colleague from ISG, Senator Stan Kutcher, is drafting another to remove the provision. of the doctor’s note.
She and other senators pointed to a number of problems with requesting a doctor’s note: patients, especially in rural areas, may not have easy access to a doctor, and vulnerable people, such as single-parent families or people with disabilities, they may have a harder time reaching a doctor. office.
Additionally, they argued that someone who has a cold or other mild symptoms that could be COVID-19 might decide to go to work rather than go to the trouble and expense of getting a doctor’s note.
Sen. Rosemary Moodie, a physician and member of the Group of Independent Senators, noted that a person with COVID-19 symptoms cannot enter most medical facilities these days.
“Therefore, the actual ability to obtain a certificate is very limited,” he said.
O’Regan noted that the bill allows an employer to require a doctor’s note within 15 days after an employee returns to work, which would give a person time to see a doctor once symptoms have disappeared.
But Kutcher said that makes even less sense. It puts doctors in the position of verifying that someone they had not seen or treated was legitimately ill a few days or even weeks before.
“The whole 15 days don’t make any sense,” he said.
O’Regan said the purpose of the provision was to have a “patch cord in case there were any concerns of abuse.”
However, he said the government is open to finding “some kind of arrangement” on the issue. He acknowledged that a recent survey suggested that more than 80 percent of Canadians would rather go to work sick than bother to obtain a medical certificate.
Bill C-3 is one of three priority bills the liberal minority government wants both houses of parliament to pass by the end of this week, when Parliament rises for a six-week recess. It is a two-pronged bill that would also impose harsher criminal penalties for harassing or intimidating healthcare workers.
The bill received unanimous approval in principle last week in the House of Commons and is now being considered by a committee of the Commons. Two Senate committees are conducting preliminary studies of the bill to speed up its eventual approval once it reaches the upper house.
Conservative Sen. Yonah Martin questioned how the administration intends to pass the bill by Friday if it is contemplating amendments.
“I feel like we need a lot more time on this important bill,” he said, adding that he fears there will be “unintended consequences” if we don’t consider it carefully.
O’Regan argued that the threat from the new Omicron variant of COVID-19, which is spreading around the world, adds urgency to passing the bill to ensure federally regulated workers can take paid time off. if they get the virus.
This Canadian Press report was first published on December 13, 2021.
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com