The provincial government has announced more support for workers affected by COVID-19. Workers are now entitled to three days of paid sick leave if they have symptoms of the COVID-19 virus, are in isolation, or have been tested and are waiting for the results.
Employers are responsible for full- and part-time pages during this period, but the government will reimburse employers up to $200 per day, provided those employers do not have a sick leave program in place at their business. Beginning June 15, employers can visit WorkSafeBC’s website at worksafebc.com/en/covid-19/covid-19-paid-sick-leave-reimbursement-program for the full details and to access the application to receive reimbursement through the online services portal.
Sick leave that is eligible for reimbursement must have been taken between May 20 and the program’s end date, December 31. This program falls outside of workers’ compensation and will not impact an employer’s premiums or accident fund.
To access reimbursement, employers must be registered and current with WorkSafeBC insurance coverage, and they must be signed up for WorkSafeBC’s employer online services.
The COVID-19 sick leave program is intended to provide financial security to workers in the time period between feeling unwell and when they are eligible to access the federal Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit, which provides four weeks wage support to individuals who miss work because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Unfortunately, the federal program has been difficult to access for workers,” Premier John Horgan told The Vancouver Sun in May. “No one should have to make that difficult choice between staying home when they’re sick or going into work because they have an economic imperative to do so.”
The federal program only supports workers who are working fewer than 50 percent of their scheduled working hours per week. Once it kicks in, it provides $500 for a one-week period, up to a maximum four weeks. Individuals accessing the program must renew their application weekly.
Amendments to British Columbia’s Employment Standards Act enabled the employee sick leave legislation, and as of January 1, 2022, the province’s legislation will also include a permanent paid sick leave for workers who cannot work due to any illness or injury.
So far, the construction industry seems supportive of the program, though association leads like Chris Atchison, president of the BC Construction Association, and Dave Baspaly, president of the Council of Construction Associations, told The Journal of Commerce, that while government help is appreciated, $200 per day may not do the trick.
“Anything that protects our workers is good,” Atchison told The Journal of Commerce in an article that ran in June. “However, reimbursement of $200 a day won’t go all the way to covering the cost to employers in the construction industry, which has high wages. Furthermore, construction has very robust COVID-19 safety protocols and any worker who gets sick goes into quarantine for 14 days, not three days.”
Baspaly echoes Atchison’s sentiment, saying, “$200 barely scratches the surface and employers must top up that amount. We need to find out the details of the reimbursement program. For example, we don’t know yet if the application process for reimbursement will be smooth or highly bureaucratic or how much time it will take.”
In the same article, Mike McKenna, executive director of the BC Construction Safety Alliance, said both workers and employers will benefit form the COVID-19 sick leave program.
“If a worker gets sick, he or she should go home and recover,” McKenna told The Journal of Commerce. “And it’s good that construction employers will be partially reimbursed for workers’ wages while they’re off the job. At the same time, every effort should be made to getting employers and employees vaccinated.”
Darin Hughes is president of Scott Construction Group. He says the program is a positive step in the right direction, but should have ben in place sooner. “Other programs are coming in across the country, and BC needs to be in step with the other provinces,” he told The Journal of Commerce. “On the other hand, it would have been better had the program come in earlier. Now it’s less needed than it used to be. Positive COVID-19 tests are less frequent than they were even as recently as a few months ago.”
One of the most important trends in how COVID-19 is spread and contained is workers’ ability to stay home when feeling unwell. Obviously, lack of pay is preventative for some, and so support for the temporary and long-term programs would have impactful repercussions for construction and all industries.
“Paid sick leave is good for businesses, it’s good for workers, and it’s good for communities,” Horgan told The Vancouver Sun. “Together, it will help us come out of the COVID-19 pandemic stronger than we went in.”
For a complete list of WorkSafeBC’s COVID resources, please visit worksafebc.com/en/covid-19 ■
