{"id":44336,"date":"2021-05-03T08:01:19","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T12:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=44336"},"modified":"2021-05-02T21:44:24","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T01:44:24","slug":"from-the-park-paid-sick-days-for-ontario-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/03\/from-the-park-paid-sick-days-for-ontario-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Park &#8211; paid sick days for Ontario workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The other day I had an opportunity to speak at length with a senior constituent about some concerns she needed assistance with.\u00a0 At some point during our conversation, she mentioned that in her lifetime she has had not only several jobs but actual multiple careers.\u00a0 A very talented and interesting lady.<\/p>\n<p>Like many people, I\u2019ve had a good number of jobs of different descriptions over the years.\u00a0 Everything from physical slugging, to sitting behind a desk, to standing in the Ontario Legislature bringing the voices of Northern Ontarians to Queen\u2019s Park.\u00a0 I can honestly say that I did not always enjoy the work that I did, but I can say that I did <em><u>learn<\/u><\/em> something from <em><u>every job<\/u><\/em>.\u00a0 Some more than others.<\/p>\n<p>One thing that I observed that bothered me then, and still does, is co-workers who demonstrate reprehensible tactics to avoid doing certain jobs they find distasteful, even if it means piling hardship and extra work on the shoulders of their co-workers.\u00a0 I recall as a young man a particular co-worker who I know <em><u>CHOSE<\/u><\/em> not to understand how to do something, even after being shown how to do the task over and over again for weeks.\u00a0 As a result, the supervisor gave up and assigned the particular task to someone else, thus doubling their exposure to a difficult, strenuous job. The thing that really got me was that that guy who was shirking his duties could not have cared less.\u00a0 It just wasn\u2019t fair and that experience always stuck with me and burns my craw even today.<\/p>\n<p>The interesting thing about this is that such behaviours are not limited to just labour intensive jobs like I had back then.\u00a0 Such callous behaviour is unfortunately evident in virtually any workplace environment \u2013 including politics.\u00a0 Case in point; paid sick days for Ontario workers.<\/p>\n<p>Among the first priorities when Doug Ford came to office, his government eliminated the paltry two paid sick days that the Liberals had legislated not too long before the 2018 election.\u00a0 In truth, Premier Ford has always opposed any program that offers help to workers to stay home when they are sick.\u00a0 He even went out of his way to speak against the federal program while refusing to bring in provincial paid sick days, and spent the spring attacking any notion of provincial paid sick days.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>June 5, 2020: \u201cI don&#8217;t support it. We have legislation that protects jobs that people, if they, you know, again, if they don&#8217;t feel safe, they don&#8217;t have to go into work.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>February 16: \u201cwaste of taxpayer\u2019s money\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is extremely obvious that Doug Ford does not care about the people of Ontario.\u00a0 He has been told by countless officials, public health care experts, the Ontario Medical Association, Ontario Hospital Association, many municipal leaders including, Ontario Federation of Labour, the science advisory table, even Dr. Williams, the provinces&#8217; own Chief Medical Officer that Ontario needs to immediately legislate paid sick leave for Ontario workers.<\/p>\n<p>Essential workers are disproportionately represented by marginalized groups, including Black, Indigenous, and racialized people, largely from lower-income families.\u00a0 It is a fact that essential workers cannot afford to stay home if it means being unable to pay rent or put food on the table.\u00a0 So they go to work sick or work with others who are sick resulting in widespread infection.\u00a0 So what use is a province-wide lockdown when essential workers continue to infect one another because they can\u2019t afford to stay home?\u00a0 Scientific data shows that paid sick leave is a public health measure that will save lives and is an effective means to bring the pandemic under control.<\/p>\n<p>Ontarians watched Doug Ford offer what at first glance sounded and looked like an apology for letting the people down.\u00a0 But in the end, no one knows even now exactly what he apologized for.\u00a0 As well, it is important to note that a real apology includes a statement of what one did wrong, a promise to do better and, most importantly, if sincere, actions that demonstrate positive change.<\/p>\n<p>What did Ontarians get from Ford in the end?\u00a0 They got an \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d and a promise to do better.\u00a0 He promised his government would legislate the best sick pay plan <em><u>in all of North America<\/u><\/em>.\u00a0 As for following through with actions which demonstrate a positive change in direction, what did Ford do to help working Ontarians?\u00a0 He tried to negotiate a deal with the federal government to contribute to the same federal sick pay program which by no means actually offers any meaningful help to Ontarians.<\/p>\n<p>Then, days ago, the Ford government passed a bill that only offers people a pathetically inadequate three paid sick days.\u00a0 It is not good enough \u2014 especially not during a global pandemic that makes people sick for at least 14 days.<\/p>\n<p>Doug Ford is just playing political games knowing that Ontarians are paying a devastatingly high price. \u00a0Clearly, he doesn\u2019t care about regular Ontarians.\u00a0 All he cares about is looking after his own interests and those of his well-connected, wealthy supporters. \u00a0He\u2019s that guy who chooses not to understand just so he doesn\u2019t have to do the work.<\/p>\n<p>Premier Ford blames young people for partying; he blames people coming across provincial borders; he blames the federal government for not getting the vaccine out and into the arms of the public.\u00a0 He blames everybody except the right body.<\/p>\n<p>No one, ever, should have to go to work sick because they can\u2019t afford not to.\u00a0 No one should catch the virus at work because their co-worker needs rent money. \u00a0No one should face going hungry because of exposure to illness. New Democrats are going to keep fighting for 14 paid sick days during a pandemic, plus regular permanent paid sick days.<\/p>\n<p>As always, please feel free to contact my office about these issues, or any other provincial matters.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other day I had an opportunity to speak at length with a senior constituent about some concerns she needed assistance with.\u00a0 At some point during our conversation, she mentioned &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":4519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 08:31:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44337,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44336\/revisions\/44337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}