We’re a year into the pandemic. Here’s who’s blocking worker support so clearly needed.
Alex Hemingway is a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, B.C. office.
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Cartoon by Greg Perry.
Amid a raging pandemic, how do Canadian workers still not have paid sick days as a basic right of employment? It’s about power.
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Crisis hit. The Tyee went all out thanks to support by readers like you. We asked what that meant to Andrew.
Real paid sick days, as a right of employment, are not rocket science. You tell your boss you’re sick, you stay home and you get paid as usual. But a majority of Canadians don’t have access to paid sick days. Low-wage workers are the most likely to be left twisting in the wind: nearly 90 per cent of British Columbians with incomes of less than $30,000 have no paid sick days.