Who pays for swine flu?

• Marty G
• 15 years ago
• Categories: business, health, workers' rights

A lot of people (like a million people or more according to the experts) are set to get sick from swine flu or not be able to go to work because the business is shut because of swine flu. What will happen to people’s incomes when they can’t work because of swine flu?

The statutory minimum for paid sick leave is five days. For many people that won’t be nearly enough to cover being sick with swine flu themselves, time off to look after dependents who get sick, potentially time when they are well but their work is closed, and time off for other normal sicknesses during the year. A smart business would rather pay for a sick person to stay home even if their paid leave has run out, than force them to come into work and infect others. But we know not all businesses are smart.

Ultimately, neither workers nor employers should be saddled with the cost of swine flu. It is a problem that we face as a community, so we should carry the cost collectively though the government.

Here’s what I propose – a law to be passed under urgency with the following provisions:

• an emergency addition of 5 days to the statutory minimum paid sick leave to remain until the pandemic is declared over by the Ministry of Health. Unlike ordinary sick leave, this pandemic sick leave would be payable to all employees. That includes those who have been employed in their job for less than six months and those in triangular employment relationships – both these groups are not eligible for ordinary sick leave. Businesses will be able reclaim from the government what they pay employees on pandemic sick leave.
• if a business is closed on Ministry of Health orders or employees are placed in quarantine, the employees should be paid at relevant daily pay, not base rate as some are at the moment. Again, the business will be able to reclaim from the government what they pay employees who are prevented from working on MoH orders.
• if a business voluntarily chooses to close temporarily it must pay its employees at relevant daily pay.
• greater access to emergency benefits for people employed in triangular working relationships and others like the self-employed who don’t get paid sick leave if they can’t work due to swine flu.

No, it’s won’t be cheap but the cost will be borne somewhere. We can’t have workers and their families losing all their income once their sick leave runs out. It’s not fair to expect businesses to pay. It seems to me that the only fair way to bear the cost is together through the government.

-Marty G