The Ontario governmentâs proposal to reinstate the doctorâs note requirement for employees who call in sick poses a âpublic health risk,â according to the Canadian Medical Association.
It says that the measure, included in legislation introduced last month to roll back the previous Liberal governmentâs employment law reforms, flies in the face of what doctors advise their patients to do when they are sick with the common cold or flu: stay at home and get plenty of rest.
âWe are urging the Ontario government to reconsider this legislation,â said Dr. Gigi Osler, the president of the Canadian Medical Association. âItâs unnecessary, it adds to the public health risk and it goes against what we would recommend to patients who are sick.â
She added that the requirement will âonly add to the burden of an already burdened health-care systemâ and puts others at risk of getting sick, in particular small children and the elderly.
Under Ontarioâs current employment law, passed by the previous Liberal government, employees are granted up to 10 âpersonal emergency leaveâ days per year, two of them paid. Employers are banned from asking staff for medical notes.
But Premier Doug Fordâs proposed Making Ontario Open for Business Act, sweeping omnibus legislation that scraps many of the Liberal governmentâs labour reforms in an attempt to boost competitiveness, lifts that prohibition.
Howard Levitt, a senior partner at Levitt LLP, which specializes in employment and labour law, told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ itâs long overdue.
âThere is a real abuse of sick leave in this provinceâ he said, adding that this accounts for billions of dollars in lost productivity for companies each year.
âUnfortunately, especially around long weekends in the summer time, too many employees -- if they think they can get away with it -- will simply claim to be sick when they are not sick,â Levitt said.
An conducted on behalf of the Canadian Medical Association found that 70 per cent of Ontarians are opposed to the change, with eight in 10 saying that the move makes it more likely that they will go work -- even if sick -- to avoid travelling to a doctorâs office to get a note.
âYou see an added risk of illnesses being spread to other people in their workplace,â Dr. Osler said.
With a report by ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Medical Affairs Specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip