NDP leader hopeful province will reinstate paid sick leave program

‘There needs to be a program where if people have symptoms, if they stay home and don’t go to work, they get their pay just the same,’ said Gary Burrill

 HalifaxToday Staff

Listen to this article

The province’s NDP leader says allowing workers to receive paid sick days is within the Nova Scotia Government’s scope.

This past summer, a COVID-19 sick leave program was in effect for workers who took time off of work due to illness.

They were eligible for up to four days of paid leave if they took time off between May 10 and July 31.

According to Gary Burrill, it expired in the middle of the provincial election.

“So now we have no paid sick leave program in Nova Scotia as we’re looking down the barrel of a fourth wave,” Burrill told NEWS 95.7’s The Todd Veinotte Show. “There needs to be a program where if people have symptoms, if they stay home and don’t go to work, they get their pay just the same.”

Burrill says the proposal his party is making is to give workers in the province 10 paid sick days for every employee in Nova Scotia as part of the province’s labour standards code.

One of the concerns about the province’s initial introduction of its paid sick leave program was the potential for workers to abuse it, but according to Burrill, that was not the case.

“The uptake of the program was modest and proportionate and not anywhere near what the government budgeted for and projected,” he said. “I think what it shows is that people understand that paid sick leave is an important program and they’re not inclined to abuse it.”