We encourage all OPSEU/SEFPO members to join the Justice for Workers phone zap on Tuesday, July 12 at 5:30 p.m. to demand 10 permanent, employer-paid sick days for all workers now.
On July 31, the wholly inadequate Workers Income Protection Benefit (WIPD), which provided three temporary sick days to workers during the pandemic, paid through WSIB, is being cancelled by the Ford government. This means the province’s most vulnerable workers will have no paid sick days at all, as we enter the seventh wave of COVID-19.
Even before the pandemic, paid sick days have always been necessary. During cold and flu season, employees shouldn’t have to decide between coming to work sick or losing days or weeks of pay. Without sick leave, catching the flu could mean a week or two without a paycheque.
Paid sick leave isn’t just good for workers – it’s good for everyone they interact with at work. Front-line workers who are forced to come to work sick can infect co-workers, customers, clients, vulnerable patients and the general public.
OPSEU/SEFPO supports the call for 10 permanent, employer-paid sick days for all workers. Three temporary sick days just doesn’t cut it. As union members, we support strong labour rights for all workers in the province, whether unionized or not.
How to join the Justice for Workers phone zap:
- Sign up for the phone zap on Tuesday, July 12.
- You’ll receive a Zoom link once you sign up.
- Go to the Zoom link at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12.
- Over Zoom, we’ll all prepare some talking points together, and then we’ll call the Premier, as well as the labour and health ministers.