Close-contact workers at high risk
Jobs like hair styling, dentistry and teaching might change, report says
VANCOUVER— People who clean teeth, cut hair, work with children and serve food will be at high risk for coming into contact with COVID-19 when the economy opens, says a new report released Friday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Until now, many of these workers, who have to be in close contact with people as part of their jobs, have been protected from potential encounters with the virus by the bittersweet reality of being laid off. But thousands of workers are now facing those risks as provinces ease coronavirus restrictions and more businesses reopen.
“There will be other outbreaks and they won’t just be in oilsands and meat packing industries,” said David Macdonald, the report’s author, referring to some of the places COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred in Canada.
“We really need to ensure workers are given some discretion,” about how they return to work, and when, he said.
Macdonald’s report analyzed Canadian jobs according to an American scale that measures how close workers have to get to other people to do their jobs. The scale, which doesn’t take into account physical distancing or barriers implemented during the pandemic, runs from 1-100, with 100 indicating necessary, regular contact with other people.
Those at the top of the list — including dentists and dental hygienists, flight attendants, hair stylists and teachers — have largely either lost their jobs or scaled back significantly during the first phase of Canada’s response to COVID-19.
Macdonald estimated that 1.7 million Canadian workers at high risk of being close to other people have lost work since February. Of those, 1.2 million were women.
As workers prepare to get back to their jobs, Macdonald outlined two major considerations that could help keep them safe: The extent to which workplaces are able to effectively implement social distancing, physical barriers and cleaning regimens, as well as workers feeling confident that they can refuse unsafe work.
Workers in Canada have statutory rights to refuse unsafe work under provincial occupational health and safety laws. But preliminary evidence from Ontario shows those work refusals are not always upheld.
Meanwhile, workers who feel it’s unsafe to return to work, such as those who are immunocompromised, may face an unsavoury decision between making a salary and feeling safe.
If they have to quit their jobs, they may even sacrifice benefits from the CERB.
Not all 1.7 million high-risk workers will return to work right away, and some industries, such as grocery stores, and much of the health-care sector, have already implemented measures to protect workers.
Other high-risk industries are proceeding more cautiously.
Lou Arab, Alberta spokesperson for CUPE, the union representing flight attendants, said they have been pushing airlines to commit to more stringent measures to protect workers — like cancelling food service, and providing more personal protective equipment. The airlines are already providing workers with masks, he said.
But with flight schedules running at five per cent of normal and flights operating well below capacity, Arab said workers’ concerns about protections aren’t yet at their height.
“As a union we’re a little bit more concerned with our members continuing to get paycheques,” he said. “When they come back to work, we’ll be pressured by our members” to pursue more aggressive safety strategies.
Dental professionals — dentists and hygienists — also topped Macdonald’s list, and that’s one service that is proceeding very cautiously with the easing of restrictions.
The British Columbia Dental Association says its members’ offices won’t be open for service until it gets further direction on protecting patients and staff from COVID-19.
A statement from the association says full dental services will be introduced gradually and when it’s safe to do so, not on the opening date of May 19 when other services are set to resume in the province. Premier John Horgan and public health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry have said guidelines for various sectors, including dentistry, are being developed, but haven’t yet been published.
Association spokesperson Dr. Alastair Nicoll says dental teams are experts at infection control and they want to ensure their practices are appropriately set up to comply with physical distancing and other requirements to reduce the transmission of the virus.
WorkSafe BC says industryspecific guidelines will be available on their website by the end of the week.
Nicoll says when patients do start returning to their dentists, they’ll notice changes with assistants behind Plexiglas and chairs, and magazines and toys removed from waiting rooms.