The federal government’s Canada Emergency Response Benefit was announced March 25 to the great relief of many workers and businesses across Canada. Regulations, released April 1, were quick to follow. But many vulnerable workers and people in insecure jobs who are afraid to keep going to work but can’t afford to stay home have no relief in sight.

At first glance, it looks promising. CERB will provide $2,000 in four-week blocks for up to 16 weeks for workers who “lose their income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.” It will be open to anyone who has earned at least $5,000 from paid work or Employment Insurance maternity or paternity benefits in the past year. Applicants must have COVID-related income loss for 14 consecutive days prior to application.

But who exactly qualifies for the benefit was the question on the minds of many workers in essential services, such as those who work at grocery stores across the country. The federal government said the benefit would apply to people in many different circumstances, including “Canadians who have lost their job, are sick, quarantined, or taking care of someone who is sick with COVID-19, as well as working parents who must stay home without pay to care for children who are sick or at home because of school and daycare closures.”

CERB, we were told, would apply to “wage earners, as well as contract workers and self-employed individuals who would not otherwise be eligible for Employment Insurance (EI) . . . [and] workers who are still employed but are not receiving income because of disruptions to their work situation due to COVID-19.”

But, long as that list is, it’s not quite long enough. What about those who are not sick, don’t have kids at home to care for or don’t match any other criteria on that list but are afraid of going in to work but do so because they need the money? There’s no mention of those in essential sectors, such as grocery store clerks who come into contact with hundreds of people daily with little (if any) protective gear. Or pregnant women with little financial choice working in these essential jobs who see contradictory messages about the risks they and their babies face with regard to COVID-19. In Tennessee, pregnant women are being treated as a high-risk group. In Quebec, the latest word is that pregnant women are at higher risk of respiratory illnesses but should still be treated like the general healthy public. What’s a woman to believe?

Pregnant women with little financial choice working in these essential jobs see contradictory messages about the risks they and their babies face.

 

Earlier this week, Corporate Knights published an article on how grocery store workers should be treated as frontline workers, with a big bump in pay to time-and-a-half and at least 14 days of paid sick leave (21 would be more realistic in a time of pandemic) for every worker, regardless of their employment status. We argued that this kind of pay raise would ensure that people who are healthy and strong would keep coming in to work because that kind of pay would make a big difference in their lives. At the same time, people who need to stay home would stay home because they would not lose the income they and their families so desperately need.

Unfortunately, this is not what is happening for the majority of the most vulnerable. Grocery store workers are getting a $2-an-hour pay raise, not time-and-a-half. And few have access to any paid sick or emergency leave days, let alone 14. Most will not have the “choice” to stay home, and if they do, they risk having no job to come back to. The law does not yet protect jobs for workers who stay off work by their own choice because they feel their workplace is unsafe. A workplace has to be officially deemed to be unsafe, and the process for doing so is complex, takes time and puts vulnerable workers who raise the alarm at risk of reprisals. Employment Standards Act regulations have not been adjusted to take this COVID reality into account.

South of the border, we are beginning to see walkouts and strikes at Amazon, Instacart and Whole Foods. Better for Canada to act now to avoid that here.

What’s an employer to do? What should government do? Let’s start with government making provisions for the many extra-vulnerable workers out there, like low-paid, pregnant grocery store employees who need income support and health protection. Let’s also get our provincial governments to make emergency changes to employment standards to protect people who are afraid to keep going to work so that they won’t lose their jobs just because they “choose” to stay home. While they’re at it, the feds and provinces can work together to ensure that no one has to face 14 days of income loss before they can get help. And finally, let’s see all big employers, especially those still turning a healthy profit in the time of COVID, step up and give access to at least 14 days of paid sick and emergency leave. But if that doesn’t happen swiftly, let’s have our governments make them do it.

In a time where we all have to pull together, let’s share the burden among those that can handle it; let’s not put it on the backs of those whose backs are already breaking.

Michelynn Lafleche is a senior advisor to Corporate Knights. She is known for her research on precarious work and labour-market change in Canada.

The post What if you’re afraid of falling ill at work but can’t afford to stay home? appeared first on Corporate Knights.

While the majority of us are holed up at home waiting out the coronavirus, grocery store clerks don’t have that luxury.

Along with doctors and nurses and other essential workers grocery store clerks, drivers and stockers go to work each day, interacting with hundreds of customers and putting their lives on the line so we can get our groceries.

This past week, 48-year old Keith Saunders, a manager at an Oshawa Real Canadian Superstore, died from COVID-19, while a second employee at the store tested positive for the virus. Longos reported that three of its workers including one driver for Grocery Gateway have tested positive for COVID-19, while Metro  has confirmed one its employees has also tested positive.

Clearly, grocery workers are on the frontlines of the pandemic, however, they’re not necessarily getting the support essential service workers deserve.

Hero Pay

To their credit, Canada’s largest grocers have stepped up hourly wages  for store workers.

While the average pay of a grocery cashier is little over $13 per hour in Canada (higher in some provinces like Ontario), they’re now getting about $2 extra per hour, which Sobey’s is calling Hero Pay.

Is $2 more per hour adequate compensation for those putting their lives on the line?

Some of those clerks who can afford to are no doubt staying home, which is why the grocers have moved recruitment activities into high gear

Major grocers have signaled that if workers are feeling unwell, they are encouraged to stay home. Though, in most cases, they don’t get paid.

What more needs to be done for grocery workers financially?

It’s critical for everyone’s safety that grocery workers who interact all day with the public don’t feel financial pressure to come into work because they can’t afford to take a sick day. At the same time, if grocers do offer full paid sick days with no doctor’s note, there’s a risk grocery stores would have trouble staffing their stores.

One solution would be to offer fully paid sick leave without doctor’s notes for up to 14 days, while at the same time topping up worker’s salaries to time and half during the course of the pandemic.

One way the grocery chains could afford the move would be by cutting share buybacks and dividends paid to shareholders, combined with some support from the federal and provincial governments. As an example just half the amount Loblaw Companies paid out to shareholders in 2019 (dividends and share buybacks) would be enough to increase each one of Loblaw’s 194,000 employees pay by $7 per hour for the next three months.

Boosting health and safety measures

Major grocers have stepped up on a number of levels to make stores safer, including hiring security guards (who are also at risk) to restrict the number of people allowed in a store at one time, erecting plexiglass protections for cashiers, providing hand sanitizer and more frequent breaks to wash their hands.

But most stores are still letting workers decide for themselves when it comes to personal protective equipment likes masks and gloves. Grocers should be ensuring that workers in close contact with customers have full access to proper protective gear (e.g. proper safety gloves and masks, which need to combined with proper training to be effective). Admittedly, Canada is in the midst of a protective equipment shortage and Loblaw’s Galen Weston says Loblaw is working “around the clock” to secure medical grade masks, hand sanitizer, and gloves.

To help ensure their safety and the safety of the public, the Public Health Agency of Canada could build ethical guidelines so that grocery clerks and other essential workers are next in line right after healthcare, police and fire workers to receive rapid COVID-19 testing as well as personal protective equipment and treatment.

The federal government can also help ensure that grocery and other essential workers are provided with solutions for emergency childcare needs, which Minnesota, Vermont and the Netherlands are now doing.

In the meantime, we can all play a role thanking these unsung heroes when we see them behind the counter or in aisle.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who made a point to thank supermarket workers in a national address Wednesday, said “Those who sit at supermarket cash registers or restock shelves are doing one of the hardest jobs there is right now.

“Thank you for being there for your fellow citizens and literally keeping the store going.”

What the grocery stores are doing for their workers

Loblaw Companies

• Temporarily increase wages by 15% for all store and distribution centre workers
• Reducing operating hours (7 a.m. to 8 p.m.) with seniors’ shopping hour for first hour
• Modifying service counters to have more pre-packaged product
• Limiting the number of customers allowed in busiest stores
• Installing plexiglass shields for the checkout counters and working to secure medical grade masks, hand sanitizer, and gloves
• [Unspecified] Safeguards to ensure employees don’t lose pay over COVID-19-

Sobeys

• Teammates reportedly washing hands every 15 minutes
• Reducing store hours (from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) with seniors’ shopping hour for first hour
• Plexiglass cashier screens
• Stopped selling bulk goods, samples
• Floor markers at each checkout
• Strictly enforce policy that teammates who feel sick do not come into work (no mention of fully paid sick-leave)
• All teammates receive an additional $50 per week and $2/hour premium over 20 hours
• Top-up programs for employees in self-quarantine or for taking time off work to care for dependents or children

Metro

• Reduced business hours (7 a.m. to 8 a.m.) with first hour reserved exclusively for seniors and more vulnerable
• Plexiglass shields at the checkouts and floor stickers at check-out lines
• Cash registers now allow contactless payment up to $250 for most credit cards
• Closed bulk counters, soup bars, olive bars and bread-slicers.
• Stores applying a limit for in-store traffic to respect the rules of social distancing
• Employees to stay home if they feel ill (no mention of fully paid sick-leave)
• Greeters at the store entrance to wipe down carts and remind customers about social distancing practices within the store
• Stores continue to be cleaned on a regular basis following high standards of hygiene, and increased frequency of cleaning rounds of equipment cleaning with extra focus on high-traffic areas of the store.
• The wages of its employees working in stores and distribution centres have been increased retroactively by $2 per hour, from March 8 to May 2.
• METRO is offering its employees an additional benefit ensuring an income replacement rate equivalent to 95% of their wages in case of isolation
• Offering access to the Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) to its employees in stores, distribution centres and offices to provide them with the support and advice they need.

Walmart Canada

• Reduced hours and opening hour dedicated to seniors, disabled and those with vulnerable health conditions
• Plexiglass at registers and pharmacy desks
• Bonus of $200 for all full-time associates and $100 for all part-time associates + “Thank You Premium” of $2.00 hourly for every store and supply chain Associate on top of their hourly rate (April 3 through April 30).
• Access to Walmart’s online physician care at no cost
• Support for quarantined associates: two-week replacement pay for associates under mandated quarantine and additional supplemental income for those with confirmed cases who are require to stay home beyond two weeks.
• Mapping out social distancing parameters throughout the store

March 31 update to Walmart policy:

Single-direction aisles are being added to Walmart stores in the U.S. and Canada.

Walmart in the US will begin taking workers’ temperatures at stores and warehouses before they begin their shifts, as well as asking them some basic health screening questions (Walmart US is in the process of sending infrared thermometers to all locations, which could take up to three weeks).

Any associate with a temperature of 100.0 degrees will be paid for reporting to work and asked to return home and seek medical treatment if necessary. The associate will not be able to return to work until they are fever-free for at least three days.

Masks will be made available — as supplies permit — for associates who want to wear them. The masks will arrive in 1-2 weeks. They will be “high-quality masks, but not N95 respirators – which should be reserved for at-risk healthcare workers.”

Toby Heaps is CEO and editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights.

Michelynn Lafleche is a Senior Advisor to Corporate Knights. She is known for her research on precarious work and labour market change in Canada.

The post Are grocers doing enough to keep their frontline workers safe? appeared first on Corporate Knights.