But in the lunch room on New Year’s Day, Hong sat with two colleagues including his good friend. To tell his story, he called him Mr. Wang. Hong said that about 20 workers crowded into a small lounge with an area of ??about 30 square meters.

Through the Mandarin interpreter of CBC/Radio Canada, Hong said that Mr. Wang felt uncomfortable. “He has a headache and a cough, but he thinks it is an allergy.”

But because his wife did not have a job at the time, Mr. Wang told Hong and his other colleague that he could not afford one day of unpaid leave. He got worse the next day, and on the third day, he had to stay at home. Although Hong didn’t know it at the time, Mr. Wang was quickly taken to the hospital, where he tested positive for COVID-19. In February, one month before he was eligible to retire, he died of illness.

At the same time, Hong and another colleague who had lunch together also tested positive. His colleague recovered, but Hong, in his 60s, developed post-COVID symptoms-including shortness of breath, fatigue, brain fog and severe swelling of the legs. Against the wishes of the doctor, he returned to work on January 30, when his two-week Canadian Rehabilitation Sickness Allowance (CRSB) ran out. (Since then, CRSB has been extended to a maximum of four weeks.)

Labor advocates say that from warehouse workers to grocery store employees to nursing staff in long-term care homes, basic workers bear the brunt. They bear the brunt. They should have a future with higher wages and better worker protection.

Listen | Labor experts describe what needs to be done to give basic workers a better future:

They said this would mean reforming the labor laws of the provinces and territories to address the problems of most racialized laborers, whose wages are too low, job security is poor, usually without paid sick leave, and large companies are held accountable. .

Hassan Yussuff, the chairman of the Canadian Labour Conference, who has just retired, said: “I do believe that what this crisis reveals is that our labor laws protect workers across the country, and more importantly, how insufficient it protects the most vulnerable workers. “His role since 2014.

“I think it’s the first time Canadians have seen… more vividly, the people who are on the front lines and keep the country running-ensuring they have groceries, delivery is met, and all other needs-to a large extent Is racialized,” he told Sunday Magazine Guest host David Commonman. “But it also reveals how vulnerable these people are.”

Before the pandemic, most Canadians did not realize “how many people [who] All parts of the country go to work day after day without paid sick leave, when they need to see a doctor to meet their needs,” he said.

During the pandemic, people in areas such as Brampton and Scarborough in Ontario suffered disproportionately, with infection rates, hospitalization rates and death rates higher than most other parts of the country. This is mainly because these communities are home to many people who are doing basic work in warehouses, factories and other environments, making it difficult to maintain social distancing. To complicate matters, missing work due to symptoms can mean insufficient rent or even unemployment.

One of the challenges is that labor laws are the jurisdiction of each province and territory, so no regulatory agency can pass legislation to ensure sick pay and a more humane minimum wage for all Canadians.

However, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) said in a statement to CBC Radio that federal, provincial, and territorial labor ministers met almost throughout the pandemic and agreed that they must ” The interests of all Canadian workers work together to resolve these issues.”

It also stated that in addition to COVID-specific benefits such as the CRSB, the federal government has also introduced some changes in the previous budget that affected low-income employees in federally regulated industries such as airline baggage handlers, truck drivers, and bank tellers member. These include extended work-protected sick leave and a minimum wage of $15, regardless of the wage level in the province or territory where they live.

The statement said: “This will directly benefit more than 26,000 workers currently earning less than $15 an hour in the federally regulated private sector.”

On January 1, the new regulations also came into effect to combat misclassification of employees by the federal regulatory industry—for example, treating airline food manufacturers who should truly be full-time employees as contractors.

But this still allows the vast majority of Canadians to engage in low-income, unstable jobs. They hope that their provinces and territories can get higher wages and job protection.

Hong said he wanted to tell Ontario Governor Doug Ford that the province’s temporary sick pay will expire on September 25 and should continue indefinitely. The Ontario COVID-19 Workers’ Income Protection Benefit provides sick pay for up to three days, Some people think this is not enough to recover from COVID; So far, the province has not indicated any plans to extend the plan.

In addition to lobbying the government, ordinary citizens can help solve this problem by calling on big companies to do better for their employees, Deena Ladd said. Workers Action Center In Toronto, an advocacy organization for workers engaged in low-paid, unstable and unstable jobs helped Hong successfully file two claims through the Workplace Safety and Insurance Commission.

Big companies make a lot of money, [that] Did not do what they need to do-Deena Ladd, Workers Action Center

“In some ways, what we have seen is that small businesses have indeed come forward and have indeed improved their wages and working conditions. But it is the big companies that make a lot of money. [that] Did not do what they needed to do,” Ladd said.

“We really need to boycott large companies and say that you, as a corporate citizen, have a responsibility to ensure that your employees are healthy and that they should get a raise. And some of the profits you make from it. This pandemic should not flow to your shareholders. ; It should flow to your workers.”

Small businesses also need to consider

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses warned that policy decisions on matters such as employer-funded sick leave or other payroll tax-funded programs should also take into account small businesses, many of which are almost impossible to survive after prolonged closure.

“[If] They don’t provide sick leave, it’s not because they must be evil people, because it’s a more informal thing, maybe in a small business… or [because] Corinne Pohlmann, senior vice president of national affairs, said it is more difficult for them to provide extra wages, especially during the pandemic.

But she said that legislation that applies to large companies usually also applies to small companies. One effect is that, for example, small retailers cannot easily recover new costs from customers without losing their business to giants such as Amazon and Wal-Mart. “When your big competitor can make everything in another country with lower labor costs, it’s even harder to increase your pricing.”

But before the legislative reform, basic workers had no choice but to join a trade union, Ladd said.

“The thousands of workers who organized these jobs before the pandemic. And what we have seen during the pandemic [is] People have nothing to lose,” Ladd said. “They realize that if they don’t speak out, if they don’t organize, if we don’t talk about workers’ needs, then nothing will actually change. ”

She said that the membership of the Workers’ Action Center increased by about 35% during the pandemic. Members said they felt that they could no longer experience a crisis like the one they had just experienced. Diseases, deaths, stress and financial difficulties caused by it.

In Hong’s case, although his doctor wrote him a note shortly after he returned to work at the end of January, requesting a change in the assignment so that he could gain a firm foothold, he said there was no such position. Hong worries that if he takes sick leave funded by employment insurance, he may lose his job. CBC Radio saw a doctor’s record and a recent WSIB decision.

But he stopped working on March 20, when his doctor warned him that he could no longer continue working long hours due to swelling of his legs after the new coronary pneumonia, Hong said. A friend introduced him to the Workers’ Action Center, where he got help with the WSIB system and forms that need to be filled in English. Although he said that his health was not good enough to come back, he made up some of the lost wages through this process, and said that the help came when he was at the lowest point and most desperate in the pandemic.

Through an interpreter, Hong said that he is motivated to share his story and let more workers know that they can get this kind of help, many of whom also have language barriers.

The interview with Hassan Yussuff and Deena Ladd was produced by Chris Wodskou. Mandarin translation provided by Yan Liang.