Dear Editor:
Re: Sick days costly for B.C. taxpayers, In My Opinion, The Record, Sept. 20.
I take issue with the numbers Mr. Bateman is using when he lambastes public sector employees for their use of sick time. Certainly it may appear that the average number of days taken by private sector workers are lower than for public sector workers. But from which work sites was this data obtained?
I would assert that most private sector workplaces do not even have paid sick time offered as a benefit. Consider the retail services and hospitality sectors, which probably employ the most private sector employees. This is part-time, minimum-wage work with little or no sick time. Can these employees even afford to call in sick if they are not deathly ill? Most would feel obligated to go to work with colds, thus infecting their co-workers and their customers, and, in the case of restaurant and food service work, potentially making them seriously ill from food contamination.
Perhaps Mr. Jordan should think about this the next time he endorses privatization and wage and benefit suppression under the tired guise of slamming the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's favourite pariah.
Mike DePaoli, New Westminster
