Read on Twitter
The Ford Government’s “stay at home” announcement today is confusing and insufficient. Importantly, the failure to include paid sick leave for workers is an insult to all Ontarian’s. (1/8)
Paid sick leave is a positive for businesses and workers in non-pandemic times - it increases productivity (people don’t work when sick), reduces lost sick days in a workplace (workers don’t make other workers sick) and increases worker retention (workers feel valued) 2/8)
Legislated paid sick leave NOW would affect the front line workers leading the fight against covid - health care workers who care for the ill; farm, warehouse and factory workers who put food on our table; construction workers who build our shelters, roads and transit. (3/8)
Paid sick leave would allow those essential workers, many who live in the hardest hit communities, to stay home when experiencing COVID symptoms without financial ruin, keep their fellow workers safe and reduce the spread of the virus. (4/8)
Instead these workers are faced with the impossible almost daily decision to risk their income and livelihood or risk the health of their coworkers, family and themselves. (5/8)
Beyond individual workers, the failure to enact paid sick leave during a PANDEMIC HURTS US ALL. (6/8).
Paid sick leave assures us that when we and our families get groceries or seek medical attention we can trust that any worker with symptoms is at home recovering, not stocking shelves or taking our temperature or caring for our elderly parents. (7/8).
To really be “all in this together” we need to trust each other. Policies like paid sick leave builds that trust between fellow resident of Ontario and between residents and the government. A trust that is currently and increasingly in short supply (8/8)
