The federal government has agreed to our demand to use “other leave with pay” rather than force our members to use sick leave. Treasury Board has said: Employees that are required by public health officials to self-isolate, if in good health and able to work, will be asked to discuss with their managers the option to telework. If that is not possible, the employees will be granted “other leave with pay (6990 code)” as per their collective agreements. In the event that your collective agreement does not provide alternatives to sick leave as mentioned above and your employer is refusing to grant you paid leave, you are entitled to take sick leave if you are quarantined. Refer to your collective agreement for details. If you do not have any (or not enough) paid sick leave, you can take unpaid job-protected leave. The Canada Labour Code provides up to 17 weeks of job-protected medical leave. Many provinces have such leave under their employment standards legislation. You can claim Employment Insurance (EI) benefits for periods off work due to illness if your employer doesn’t pay for your sick leave. The Liberal government has recently announced a change to the rules for Employment Insurance (EI) so that workers affected do not have to serve the waiting period to claim EI sick benefits, as well as other measures to help employers and employees. For more information, visit Government of Canada takes action on COVID-19. If you contract coronavirus at work, you may be able to file a claim for workers compensation benefits. These types of claims were made by healthcare workers during the SARS outbreak. For more information, please contact us at info@pafso.com The union is urging all employers to be flexible in allowing employees to take paid and unpaid leaves or to allow employees to work from home if possible.