The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that everyone’s health and well-being depends on workers being able to stay home when they are sick. In BC, workers now have a legal right to time off when they are ill—three days for regular illness and unlimited time for COVID-19—but not paid time off. As a result, for many in BC, staying home when sick means losing income. It is encouraging to see the federal government initiate talks with the provinces to look at implementing 10 days of paid sick leave across the country after pressure to take action from other leaders. As our research shows, such policies would benefit a large number of workers in BC, including some of the lowest paid and most precarious.

The devastating toll of COVID-19 in nursing homes across the country has drawn attention to the fact that many workers in long-term care work at multiple facilities because they need more than one job to make a living, and this has directly contributed to the tragedy that is currently unfolding. Unfortunately, long-term care workers aren’t the only ones who can’t support their families with a single job. Having to work multiple jobs is a common reality for too many people in BC.
The pandemic is shining a light on the deep inequalities that exist in our economy, which have left some people much more exposed to risk and much less prepared to weather the crisis than others. While on the surface BC’s job market seemed strong going into the pandemic, with low unemployment and plentiful job vacancies (even prompting some to warn of worker shortages), beneath the surface structural problems abounded.