TORONTO —
More than half of Canadians say they are unable to self-isolate and stay home from work when necessary, according to a new survey.
The survey, conducted by researchers out of the University of Guelph and the University of Toronto, found that 51 per cent of participants said they feel “unprepared” to stay home and self-isolate if they or a family member were to contract COVID-19.
“That’s a significant proportion of the workforce who can’t stay home if needed,” said the study’s lead author Gabrielle Brankston, a PhD student at the University of Guelph, in a press release.
According to the study, researchers surveyed nearly 5,000 Canadians in May 2020 on their attitudes to public health measures, including limiting contacts and staying home when sick.
While researchers reported that the majority of respondents said they believed current public health measures were effective, many said they would also be expected to go to work if sick. Additionally, only 51 per cent of those surveyed said they would still be paid if they had to self-isolate at home.
The study’s lead investigator Amy Greer, an associate professor of population medicine at the University of Guelph, said in the release that the data “clearly” shows that not every Canadian has the same ability to comply with public health guidance.
“We know that to reduce transmission, we need people to be able to stay home when they are sick. As we now see increasing transmission in many parts of Canada, these data remain relevant and important even though they were collected almost a year ago,” Greer said.
According to the study, researchers found that demographics was a “significant factor” in respondents’ ability to self-isolate when sick.
The survey results indicated that younger individuals were more likely to report they had no access to paid sick leave and would be expected to go to work even if sick.
Those with lower income, who cannot work from home, and those without paid sick leave were less likely to feel confident that they could comply with public measures, according to the study.
“These findings reinforce the fact that if we want people to self-isolate to avoid spread, we need to provide more support for those who need to stay home but don’t have the means to do so,” Brankston said in the release.
“In these cases, we may be asking people to choose between feeding their family or avoiding possible further disease spread. And we need to make avoiding disease spread the easy choice,” she added.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Brankston said there need to be social supports in place, including paid sick leave, for those who have to self-isolate and also changes in workplace policies to discourage employees from coming to work when sick.
“If our collective priority is to maintain an open economy, we need to ensure that individuals are able to comply with public health measures that prevent and control transmission of the virus,” she said.
Thomas Tenkate, director of Ryerson’s School of Occupational and Public Health, said the “key driver” of being able to self-isolate is whether employees have paid sick leave.
Tenkate, who was not involved in the study, told CTVNews.ca on Thursday that those without paid sick leave will likely turn up at work because they can’t afford to stay home.
“If you’re a well paid professor like myself, I can stay home, but if you’re a minimum wage worker at a grocery store… there’s a big difference there if you get COVID and what can you do,” Tenkate said.
While some employers may not be able to offer paid sick leave to employees, Tenkate says it should be the responsibility of the federal and provincial governments to “make up the difference.”
“The aspect of access to paid sick leave is actually a really important component of the COVID response plan and I think it’s also one of the areas where the government hasn’t really stepped up enough to be able to recognize that and to support workers in that,” Tenkate said.
Tenkate explained that too much of governments’ focus in response to the pandemic has been on health aspects including securing vaccines, contact tracing, and acquiring personal protective equipment, and not enough on providing workplace support.
“All of those resources and public health measures actually get undermined if people can’t afford to stay at home when they’re supposed to,” Tenkate said.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
