As the federal government discusses the possibility of implementing 10 paid sick days for workers across Canada amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, experts caution that doing so could be more costly than beneficial.
Lior Samfiru, an employment lawyer and co-founding partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, said the federal government “can’t actually do anything,” because most of the country’s employees are governed provincially. “So really it would be up to the provincial government to implement this,” he explained.
And Samfiru said while the provincial government can mandate it, the program’s associated costs would ultimately fall to employers. “It seems to me that with the current economic situations and businesses struggling, (trying) to impose