Removing workers’ right to two paid sick days and replacing them with unpaid emergency leave is “more progressive” for workers, Conservative MPPs said Thursday at a testy committee hearing for proposed new labour legislation.Bill 47, which aims to undo numerous recently enacted measures including two paid sick days, equal pay for equal work, and a scheduled minimum wage bump to $15 in January, passed its second reading earlier this week and is now before the Finance and Economic Affairs committee.Candace Rennick, secretary-treasurer for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said the rollback “makes picking on the poor a government priority” and called it “bizarre” to make workers choose between losing a day’s pay and coming into work ill.Ontario workers are currently entitled to two paid sick days and eight unpaid leave days. The government wants to give workers 10 unpaid leave days instead — three for illness, three for family responsibilities, and two for bereavement leave.“We’re hearing that it’s more progressive,” said Conservative MPP for Thornhill Gila Martow of the new proposals.“We are offering a very progressive package of leave,” she said, adding most other Canadians provinces do not offer paid sick days.Prince Edward Island is currently the only province with paid sick days provisions. Some 146 jurisdictions around the world offer some form of compensation when employees are ill.Read more:Students want Ontario to scrap special minimum wage that is lower than that paid to adultsOttawa rolls out new worker protections, blasts Ontario’s ‘politics of cruelty’How your rights on the job will change if Bill 47 is passedMichelle Eaton, vice-president of communications for the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, told the committee Bill 47 “restored fairness for both business and workers while reducing the financial burden,” on companies.“Bil ...
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