Langley Chamber Advocates for Changes to Paid Sick Leave to Fix Quirks, Limit Costs
Langley Chamber Advocates for Changes to Paid Sick Leave to Fix Quirks, Limit Costs
June 8, 2022 -- The Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce is continuing to advocate for local businesses by calling for improvements and changes to the province’s paid sick leave with provincial government representatives. In addition, this week the Langley Chamber is helping to advance a policy, written by our CEO, through the BC Chamber of Commerce to get it adopted as an official position of BC’s largest business association.
The Langley Chamber is highlighting three key areas in need of improvement with paid sick leave:
- No Allowance for Partial Sick Days
- Sick Pay Not Being Linked to the Amount of Missed Work
- Lack of an Hours-Worked Requirement
Currently, there is no allowance for partial sick days, for example if someone leaves early from a shift due to illness. The implications of this are that any amount of time an employee takes as off as sick counts as a sick “day” and triggers the payment of one paid sick day – leaving the employee with less coverage and, concerningly, leaving the employer obligated to pay for both the hours worked during the shift before they left, plus a full paid sick day!
Sick Pay Not Linked to the Amount of Missed Work
Under the law, the number of hours the employee is scheduled to work on the actual sick day and missed are not relevant to the amount of wages owed by the employer. For example, if an employee regularly works 8-hour shifts during the week, but takes an extra 4 hour shift on a Saturday and then calls in sick for that shift, the employer actually owes the employee an 8-hour sick day! Sick pay is currently based on the 'average shift' for the worker, instead of being linked to the amount of work missed by being sick!
Lack of an Hours-Worked Requirement
Currently, there is very little requirement that an employee regularly works with an employer to be eligible for paid sick leave. In fact, as long as an employee works at least once in the previous 30 days, they are eligible. Instead, to be eligible for paid sick days an employee should be required to have worked a minimum number of hours preceding the sick day, similar to how statutory holiday pay works already. This would limit this new obligation to workers with a more consistent tie to the employer.
Have questions or concerns about sick leave? Let us know. Contact our CEO by email.