An Analysis On Removing Sick Note Requirements

In the final days of this legislative sitting in PEI the recently elected MLA, Mr. MacFarlane, introduced his first bill which aimed to remove the sick note requirement that employers can demand of their employees for any sick days they take which are granted by the Employment Standards Act(ESA). The bill was voted down by the government.

Having read what the media has to say, as well as examining the discussions taking place on social media, I can confidently say that what is happening with debate on this bill is the typical merry-go around of nonsense that has characterized political discussions on PEI for a very long time now.

The prevailing narrative is that the Premier has no idea of what he is doing, and he won’t listen to people that are smarter and know more than him. He is either too bitter or too stupid to listen to the Green Party which has yet again brought a magnificent idea to the legislature.

It is my aim with this article to provide the reader with a more balanced view and actually present the arguments that the Premier was making against this bill. From what I see, with the exception of Mr. Neatby, the media is just blatantly refusing to even acknowledge the Premier made an argument.

What The Act Seeks To Accomplish

It’s important to start off by stating there is a lot of confusion out there as to what exactly this act seeks to accomplish. The confusion is even coming from people that support the act. The Premier accused MacFarlane of rushing this bill and I have to agree; the Greens have done a poor job of presenting this bill. They invited Dr. Dingwell as a witness and her presentation only muddied the waters. It’s clear her objective is to remove the requirements for sick notes entirely. She simply does not want to write any sick notes for the common cold regardless if the days being taken off fall under the ESA or not. Fair enough, but that is not what the act seeks to accomplish. Starting October 1, the ESA will provide three unpaid sick days a year and a potential max of three paid sick days. If the act had passed, an employer could still ask for a sick note if the employee asks for a day off after they had used up all the days granted to them by the ESA.

This is why the Premier had accused MacFarlane of talking out of both sides of his mouth, it was hard to figure out what the Greens were arguing for, it would have been a better presentation if MacFarlane and Dr.Dingwell had agreed beforehand as to what they were aiming for. Regardless, after having read all the relevant acts, I feel confident in saying if passed the act would have removed very little of the administrative burden for doctors. Sick notes would still be prevalent, it’s hard to say how much of a burden it would have eased because it appears the Greens did little work if any to figure out the benefits.

The Problem With This Bill

As the Premier alluded to in his remarks, there are often unintended consequences to legislation and it would be wise for legislators to look at all the groups affected by a particular bill. In this case, nobody is disputing the fact that the bill would ease the administrative burden of doctors and that would be a good thing. What is also certain though, is that it would cause an extra burden on some employers.

Currently, the labor regulations in place heavily favor employees over an employer. For instance, an employee is often required to give no more than a one week notice if they wish to leave their employer. But if an employer wishes to dismiss an employee over poor performance or absenteeism, the procedure for them is quite arduous. It often requires many months of documenting all the various issues and trying to resolve them with the employee. All the while, the employer must suffer the costs associated with any poor performance, and if this process of “papering the file” as MacFarlane called it is not meticulously conducted, the employer can expect to incur further costs in lawyer fees attempting to defend themselves from suits launched by various government funded organizations that represent workers.

As it currently stands, the sick note is not there to verify if the person is sick or not, it’s there to act as an aid in dismissal.

In certain cases, an employee might care so little about their job that they decide to take some time off and refuse to get a sick note when asked. The employer now has a documented reason to aid them in the dismissal of said employee. Without this aid, I am unsure of how much more difficult it would be to dismiss an employee, and based on the answers MacFarlane gave, it sounds like he does not know either.

Take this aid away, and it’s extra costs the employer has to bear. These unnecessary extra costs take away from capital investments that increase productivity. Diminished productivity leads to decreased wages which overall has a negative effect for society.

A legislator must take these effects into account, but when asked, MacFarlane simply refused to accept these consequences exist! It calls back to when the Green Party tabled a bill of their own to add sick days and when questioned about how people could potentially abuse this system Michelle Patterson— a staffer for the Green party— replied that she does not write legislation with the presumption that people can be dishonest! The only way that proposed legislation from the Green Party can make sense is if you fundamentally refuse to believe in reality.

Since the Green Party has not done any work in attempting to quantify the costs to employers in regards to taking away this particular tool for dismissal, the only prudent course of action was to strike down the bill.

What A Proper Bill Would Look Like

In a properly functioning society where property rights are respected there would be no need for this farce in regards to sick notes. An employer would be allowed to police his own employees and if he felt the relationship was no longer working out he could simply dismiss them. Unfortunately, socialists and progressives have stacked regulations on top of regulations and now the process for dismissal has become an exhausting endeavor in which doctors have been caught in the crossfire.

Dr. Dingwell repeated a few times it was not her job to police attendance, that the employer should do that. But since the government has removed that freedom from employers, someone has to do it and the government has chosen doctors. A doctor really has little say in the matter, this is an unintended consequence of promoting the erroneous idea that healthcare is a right. This diminishes the autonomy of doctors and forces them to work within the monolithic constraints of medicare. In a free society, doctors themselves would have the freedom to chose if they want to write sick notes or not.

If reducing the requirements for sick notes was really the goal, then this act falls well short of that. An interesting path to take would be for the Premier to toss the ball back to the Green Party and see what they do, introduce a new bill next sitting that would drastically cut down on sick notes. The only way to accomplish this is to cut down on regulations that make dismissal more difficult. Bring such a bill to debate and see what their words are worth.

I think the Greens would quickly prove that their bill is not really aimed at reducing the administrative burden of doctors as much as it’s meant to continually punish businesses. They are possessed by the spirit of Marxism and view employers as nothing more than exploiters. They see it as their duty to protect employees through regulations and punishing taxes. This anti-capitalist mentality is the main culprit that is responsible for so much of the poverty in PEI.

Sick notes may very well be a farce as MacFarlane alluded, but if we are being honest, so is the bill he brought forward. The real intention is to grab headlines and build his profile for what looks like a potential run at the leadership of his party.

Many voices in the media have lamented that the days of collaboration in the house are over; I say that is some of the best news Islanders have heard in a long time. There is no reasoning with fanatics, you must simply let them bang their heads against the wall.