Following recent reports from long-term care homes, group homes and hospitals, frontline workers came together today in a virtual news conference to sound the alarm over working conditions that put workers, patients, and the broader public at risk - especially during the COvID-19 crisis.
“We welcome the Ontario government’s announcement to top up workers’ pay so they can forgo shifts at multiple long-term care homes. But honestly, these measures should have been introduced before hundreds of deaths took place and they still lack crucial paid emergency leave days,” said Carolina Jimenez, registered nurse and coordinator of the Decent Work and Health Network. “We know that low-pay and part-time hours make it almost impossible for workers to take unpaid time off. As a result, many health workers, food and sanitation workers, security guards and others are under immense pressure to continue working, despite being sick.”
“The prevalence of precarious employment continues to be a health hazard for workers and the public,” said Febe Jimenez, a personal support worker in a Hamilton retirement home. “Many facilities deliberately use part-time workers because they can avoid responsibility for providing adequate paid sick days and health benefits for their staff. Because of low wages and part-time hours, many of us have had no choice but to work for more than one employer. It’s good that the government is moving now, but low pay and part-time hours is a recipe for disaster every day of the year, not just during this COVID-19 crisis.”
“Even workers who have a few paid sick days in their contract need an additional 14 paid days of leave during pandemics. This should be the law,” said Tina Dagnall, a nurses’ aide working in a Port Hope nursing home. “We just came out of flu season when the COVID-19 crisis struck - and many of us had already used up our paid sick days. Anyone who has to take days off to wait for test results or self-isolation takes a huge financial hit.”
Despite recent announcements made by the federal and provincial governments, some of the most urgent and obvious protections for our frontline workers have not been provided, including paid emergency leave and basic health and safety protections.
Charlene Nero, a staff representative for LiUNA local 3000, which represents frontline health workers from lab technicians to group home workers said: “We have been flooded with concerns from workers who are considered essential, but are terrified about the lack of protections for themselves, their families and the public.” According to Nero, “Within 24 hours of releasing an online survey, almost 2,000 frontline workers - inside and outside the health care sector - called for urgent help on basic protections, including paid emergency leave; personal protective equipment (PPE); decent wages; full-time work; and better health and safety protections. Since so many frontline workers are women, they also flagged the lack of affordable, high quality, safe child care. Many of these workers are now juggling child care as well as working in these intolerable conditions.”
“It is becoming clearer and clearer that some of the most undervalued workers are, in fact, our most important,” said Carolina Jimenez. “Take cleaners, for example. Any doctor or nurse will tell you that cleaners are the most important staff in our healthcare ecosystem.”
“Not only is our work undervalued in terms of pay, we are also working in highly unsafe and unsanitary conditions,” said Veronica Zaragoza, herself a former cleaner, and now an organizer with the Workers’ Action Centre. “I can tell you, most cleaners don’t get paid sick leave, so we can’t stay home when we’re sick. We don’t even get gloves, never mind the kind of personal protective equipment needed to protect against coronavirus. Cleaners are invisible workers, but everyone’s health depends on having clean hospitals, clean grocery stores, and clean public transit.”
Meanwhile, some grocery store workers are supposed to receive premium pay, but they too have not been offered paid emergency leave days, unless someone is specifically determined to be affected by COVID-19.
“Increasing pay without combining it with paid emergency leave intensifies the pressure on us to keep working, even when we are sick or exhausted. I’m glad the government is taking steps during this crisis to provide additional income support for workers. But what about the next time?” said Rechev Browne, a grocery store worker in Toronto. “I work for a very profitable grocery store chain. Protecting workers should be fundamental to their business model. For more than a month, I’ve watched people push themselves trying to get as many hours as possible at the higher pay rate. We handle food. It shouldn’t take a global pandemic to get some relief. To prevent this situation, we need paid emergency leave, better wages, and enough hours so we can survive with just one job.”
“Clearly, precarious employment anywhere is a public health hazard everywhere,” said Carolina Jimenez. “Whether we are health workers, food workers, cleaners, security guards, or delivery workers we need to ensure that everyone has decent work, basic health and safety protection and - crucially - paid emergency leave. Every single worker needs a minimum of 7 paid days off as a permanent measure. And during an outbreak, all workers - whether they are unionized or not - should be legally entitled to an additional 14 paid days.”
source: media release, Decent Work and Health Network Photo from April 2019 rally against public health cuts
