Today the Pallister government introduced changes to the Employment Standards Code to ensure that all workers have access to up to three hours of paid leave to get their COVID-19 vaccines. This will ensure that workers won’t lose pay for doing the right thing and getting vaccinated.
The MFL advocated for this paid leave along with the other members of the labour caucus of the Labour Management Review Committee. We were glad to build agreement and consensus support from the employers who also sit on that committee.
Today’s announcement shows the importance of legislating paid leave to remove barriers to protecting public health, instead of setting up voluntary programs like the Pallister government has done for paid sick days. We encourage the government to take immediate action to protect public health by legislating paid sick days for all workers now.