CanadaJimmy

During my first job in Canada I got quite sick and had to take a week off. The paycheque deduction nearly ruined me. It’s great to see this being implemented.

scrubbedexpat091

5 is better than I thought, I really thought they would cave with bussinsess and only require 2 or 3 days off, 5 is on par with what I used to get in the US, it was shocking when I moved to Canada and found out sick pay wasn't really a thing, even my crappy minimum wage retail job at Target in California offered 5 days paid sick days, BC finally coming around to realizing people get sick.

One thing I noticed about working in California vs BC was due to lack of sick pay, people came into work sick rather than call in and stay home where it was the opposite everywhere I worked in California, end result less people get sick when sick people don't have to go to work.

I usually went to work sick simply because taking even 1 day off unpaid could mean paying rent or not paying rent that month.

Now we just need to get them to up annual vacation from 2 weeks to 3 weeks then increase it by 1 week every 4 years until reaching 6 weeks annual vacation, I can dream anyhow, it would never happen, maybe 3 weeks though could be realistic, Sakatchewan already does it so BC certainly could, also need to update break rules, they suck, at least do what California requires in an 8 hour day, 30 minute lunch + 2 paid 15 minute breaks, and make it illegal to penalize people for using the bathroom, yes some employers track your bathroom usage and will penalize you if they decide you use the bathroom too much.

dbd33

Is the idea that people get paid not to go to work? I wouldn't do that, if I'm not working why should they pay me? Why is there a count of days, doesn't that mean that people will take five days off a year whether they're sick or not?

I suppose this might make a limited kind of sense for a bricklayer but, for people in white collar jobs, it's hard to see how they could reasonably be unable to work except during the course of an operation; perhaps a few hours a year, certainly not five days. I can't see someone taking five days off, expecting to be paid for it, and having a job to come back to. Madness.

CanadaJimmy

I think the main idea is to not financially punish people who are sick, don't think of it as "being paid for not working" but more like "being sick insurance" that covers your time lost from work.

scrubbedexpat091

I was curious, and I didn't realize 16 US states have already mandated some level of paid sick days or mandated paid time off for any reason, many there went the accrual rate vs set days per year, California is basically 1 hour per week paid sick time with their accural rate, Nevada is about the same, but Nevada is a paid time off, so a vacation/sick day in one.

Siouxie

It's a good start, but a big difference between Canada (generally) sick pay and the UK - Statutory Sick Pay (up to 28 weeks).
https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay
and https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/eligibility

CanadaJimmy

Yep, the UK may be further to the right than much of Europe but still has some better social policies compared to Canada.

spouse of scouse

So if you were too ill/incapacitated to go to work and had sick leave available, you wouldn't take it? Madness!

I've had 6 months straight off on sick leave. Twelve days per year, unused rolled over. I was very glad that I'd taken hardly any 'sickies' in the preceding 12 years.

dbd33

I've never had sick pay so I've never had the option of being sick. Obviously I've had illnesses, I had measles as an adult and had to endure all the neighbourhood kids crawling on me, but I didn't stop working. After umpteen years of an hour's work equaling an hour's pay I don't think I could deal with being paid for not working, be it vacation or statutory holidays or sick days.

scilly

I was in a similar situation.

We got 12 days a year sick leave, any unused rolled over. I worked less than full time, so I amassed 10 days a year, most of which I did not use. Then I had an operation and was able to take as much time off as I needed to properly recover, and even return to work on a gradual basis.

Several of us also took our sick days during a period of 3 years in the mid-1990s when one of our colleagues went down with AIDS. He could work, but was very susceptible to infection. So those of us who worked closely with him would take days off when we had a cold.

Surprise ......... we got better faster than when we forced ourselves to go into work, and our colleague was able to continue working right up to when he had to go into palliative care.

BristolUK

Funny that isn't it. Take care of yourself when you're under the weather and you'll soon be up and about, recovered, and able to work at full capacity again.
Who knew?
It's almost like it would be worth having some sort of social or government policy to bring such a thing about.

scilly

It is NOT being paid not to work ............ we also had to pay into the benefit scheme that granted the sick leave!

It is employers understanding that people get sick, and sometimes cannot work.

Too much Covid was spread around here in BC, and I'm sure in other provinces, by people going to work when they should not have done.

scilly

Indeed!

spouse of scouse

If you are self-employed or have a contract that doesn't include paid sick leave, then getting paid sick leave isn't an option unless you're self-insured. Getting sick or becoming temporarily incapacitated isn't optional either. Being so sick or incapacitated that you're unable to work also isn't optional.

If we put aside for a minute your own circumstances and your heroic efforts to spread your diseases go to work while you're sick, are you advocating that governments shouldn't require employers to pay sick leave at all?

scrubbedexpat091

I can say all the jobs I ever had were 100% impossible to do if sick enough to miss work, I am sure many jobs out there like that.