N.B. Sick Day Legislation Up For Debate in Committee
FREDERICTON — Green Party leader David Coon’s bill proposing 10 paid sick days for all New Brunswick workers passed second reading last week and is headed into committee for consideration.
The bill, An Act to amend the Employment Standards Act, would bring all workers in line with federally regulated employees who also receive 10 paid sick days per year. Right now, workers get five unpaid sick days.
Coon’s bill proposes the cost of the sick days be covered by a transition fund that would be established by the government, instead of asking businesses to bear the costs. That’s something that will be debated by the Standing Committee on Law Amendments in the new year.
“People are really pleased to see the opportunity, perhaps, to have some kind of sick leave so they don’t have to choose between staying home and keeping their germs to themselves, or going to work and spreading them around,” Coon says. “For parents to be able to stay home on a sick day to look after a very sick child.”
Coon says he’s heard from the business community and been asked questions about how the law would apply to full-time vs part-time staff, and how, specifically, the program would be funded.
“The bill obviously spawns lots of questions,” he says. “Myself and my colleagues recognize that businesses, and in particular restaurants, but many small businesses have been going through the whole Covid pandemic period and it’s not been easy, and certainly we don’t want to create any more hardship for them.”
“But, also, even from a public health perspective, we need the ability for people to have some kind of sick leave.”
The bill was specifically sent to the Standing Committee on Law Amendments to allow for submissions from the public, as the committee has a mandate to call witnesses. Coon says he wishes all legislation was required to go through a committee with a similar process.
Coon says he’s looking forward to hearing from business owners in different sectors to determine how best to administer the bill and if any flexibility is needed to accommodate the different circumstances of different types of businesses.
Paul Trainor, president of the Atlantic Business Federation, asks that legislators tread carefully when it comes to imposing new rules and potential fees on small businesses.
He says the question of who will pay for the fund is extremely important at this time of high financial stress for small and medium-sized businesses.
“That will be the fundamental question because small business owners have been decimated for the past two years,” he says.
The organization, which supports about 800 small and medium-sized Atlantic Canadian businesses in everything from websites to insurance, has seen more business owners reaching out for help refinancing their homes just to stay afloat.
“Just in the last six months we’ve done $6.6 million of refinancing,” Trainor says of the organization’s P.E.I.-based head office. The office in Oromocto has done $18 million of refinancing. “It’s mostly small business owners, they have to refinance because they have to feed their family.”
The continued fallout from Covid, combined with the double whammy of inflation and higher interest rates, is overwhelming small and medium-sized businesses, Trainor says. That means any new fees or costs would be too much to bear.
Trainor says he’s also concerned that all the extra sick days have the potential for abuse and will leave small and medium-sized businesses even more short-handed.
“If you have 10 people on your average building site, that’s 100 days a year that you’re going to be without [at least one person] working,” he says.
Instead of more days off, Trainor suggests the government look at tax incentives to help small businesses fund health care and dental plans.
He estimates the percentage of people who own small and medium-sized businesses that don’t have a health care plan is likely at around 75 percent, and it follows that their employees also don’t have plans.
“We are far more in favour of getting something tangible,” he says. “If you put in place a health plan for your staff, to cover their sickness, that would be way more beneficial.”
As for Coon, he is hopeful that the committee process and contributions from the public will help shape the bill into something that is fair for all parties.
“The whole thing about committee is looking at how to address the details of the bill and make improvements,” he says. “The big picture that I want people to keep in mind …that all New Brunswickers have access to some kind of paid sick leave, and that it doesn’t create hardships for small and medium-sized businesses.”
No committee dates to consider the bill have yet been set.
Anyone interested in speaking to the bill or in contributing a written submission can contact Shayne Davies, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly at 506-453-2506, or contact their local MLA.
Alex Graham is a Huddle reporter in Saint John. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].