By Talar Stockton | Yukon News
With the Yukon government extending its paid sick leave program for one more year, Yukoners are reacting with mixed feelings.
The Yukon government announced on Feb. 27 that its sick leave rebate program would be extended to March 31, 2026. The program reimburses employers who give their workers paid sick days. The program was initially supposed to end this month.
In a press release sent out on Feb. 28, the Yukon Federation of Labour called for a “permanent solution that legislates a minimum standard for employers to meet or exceed,” pointing to the 10 paid sick days federally-regulated employees receive.
Teresa Acheson, president of the Yukon Federation of Labour, told the News the program in the territory is a tax-funded sick leave rebate, rather than a legislated sick leave where employers are held responsible to provide workers with paid sick leave.
In a Feb. 28 interview, Acheson said the current program is also too restrictive on which workers are eligible for the paid sick leave.
Under the current program, employees eligible for pay through the program are those who have a hourly wage less than or equal to $33.94, are Yukon residents, have a valid Yukon health care card, and those who have worked for the employer for at least 90 consecutive days. Returning seasonal workers who are Yukon residents may count days worked in the previous season towards this total, according to the Yukon government website.
There’s often a misconception that legislating a paid sick leave would be hard on employers, said Acheson.
She points to a 2021 report from the Centre for Future Work, which found that legislating a 10-day paid sick leave policy would increase business costs by 0.21 per cent.
“That’s without considering the benefits that flow out from that, such as through your staff retention, stronger customer confidence and the reduction of contagion, you know, in a workplace,” she said.
Phil Willoughby, the second vice-chair with the Yukon Chamber of Commerce, said the rebate really enhances the ability for employers to attract and retain workers, not mention the safety net it provides to Yukoners.
Willoughby himself is not eligible for the rebate program, as he already provided employees with paid sick days before the program was introduced.
Willoughby said employees showing up to work sick because they won’t be paid otherwise can be a real problem for small businesses, who may only have a staff of three or four people.
“It puts the other staff at risk of becoming unwell,” he said.
He said the program is a win for Yukon businesses, employees and the economy.
The funding for the extension depends on legislative approval of the territorial budget. The territorial legislature begins the spring sitting on March 6.
Lane Tredger, an MLA for the Yukon NDP, sat on the Making Work Safe Committee, which shared its recommendations for paid sick leave in the Yukon in January of 2022.
In a March 4 interview with the News, Tredger said the committee recommended permanent paid sick leave, where as the current program is not permanent.
“That leaves people in a lot of uncertainty,” they said.
The Yukon premier previously told the News the government is using this next year to learn how to improve the program, and that decisions on the program’s permanency will be made after the collection of data and feedback from third-party organizations.
Tredger said the program is still opt-in for employers.
“There’s lots of really great businesses out there who want this for their employees, but it leaves the possibility that a worker is vulnerable to whether their employer wants to fill out paperwork or not,” they said.
Tredger said they “absolutely believe there should be mandatory, like, legally prescribed paid sick leave.”
Tredger, while acknowledging they were happy to see the program extended, called it a “half-measure.”
They said the Yukon Liberals haven’t had the will or courage to do something that may be unpopular in some places, and that they themselves would like to see the program shift from a temporary, opt-in program to a permanent, mandated one.
When the extension was announced, Pillai told the News that a paid sick leave mandate was not being considered.
The Yukon Party emailed a statement on behalf of party leader Currie Dixon to the News on the extended paid sick leave program on March 4.
“The extension of Paid Sick Leave for one year is not surprising at all given that it’s a requirement of the Liberal-NDP coalition agreement,” reads the statement. “It is part of the price that the Liberals have to pay for the NDP to continue to prop them up and look the other way from their terrible record on health care, crime, and the economy.”
Willoughby of the Yukon Chamber of Commerce said that the program is strategically important for the North, especially for businesses in smaller communities which can struggle to attract staff.
“I think ultimately, you know, having a healthy workforce in the Yukon means we have a healthy economy for all of Yukon,” said Willoughby.
