How close contact rules look for school staff with family members at home sick with COVID

During a recent Northern Gateway Public Schools Trustee meeting, a discussion was had concerning non-paid leave for teachers and staff who become close contacts with someone sick with COVID. Trustee Jim Hailes brought it forward, questioning the validity of what he had heard the day prior. “It was brought to my attention that if a staff member’s family is infected and the staff member chooses to stay home because of close contact, they’re no longer covered for a day of absence.”

Superintendent Kevin Bird responded. “Ahh, true. So, the rules have changed around close contact. We are mirroring the close contact rules, and rapid testing has a role to play in this. By law in this province, anybody who requests to have the 14 days off, if they are a close contact, receives 14 days off, but it’s unpaid. People can make that decision on their own. We use rapid testing so that people can continue to work. If they do feel they need the days those are available to them but not in a paid way. An individual who’s sick, that’s a whole different story, but an individual who’s not ill and is a close contact can continue to work with the proper precautions, or they can make their own choice about leave if they desire.”

Trustee Hailes said that it concerned him. “We have spent a year and a half, two years, doing everything we can to keep COVID out of our classrooms. Now we’re saying that we have a teacher, support staff or whatever that is in close contact, and now we’re saying that it’s alright for you to go back. The provincial government has a political mandate and are loosening things up. What we are doing is putting our kids back in jeopardy.”

Mr. Bird said that they have different tools now and that the virus is different too. “One way of approaching it is to say that the reality is we are all close contacts, and this virus is moving extremely quickly. We don’t know who is and who isn’t because of the asymptomatic carrying and transmission. It means some of the other things we are doing need to change because they were based on a previous variant. I would hesitate to say that we’re placing students at risk, more of saying that the virus has altered and that we do have the tools of the rapid tests and we need to be having our staff in schools working with our kids face to face and that’s our priority.”

Trustee Sally Petryshen said she was concerned for staff should someone be faced with a sick kid and take time off. “I know that you don’t get that many family medical days or that many personal days, and I would hate to see any of our staff be forced to take vacation time just because they need to look after their children who many test positive.” She asked if it could be looked at from Superintendent Bird’s level to see about having more staff flexibility.

“It’s stressful when you don’t have anywhere to send your kids because you can’t send them to childcare. You can’t send them to the grandparent’s house when they have tested positive. It might be time to take a look at some things to ease the pressure for staff members that might be put in that position,” she said.

Mr. Bird said there are other leaves that people could use. “There’s no special, somebody’s sick at home (with) COVID paid leave, but people do have other types of leaves that they can make use of to absorb that time, whether that’s family medical leave or time in lieu or personal days.” He noted that the wording and types of leave vary with the different contracts. “One of the issues that comes up that has to be solved is the fact that if people have 14 paid days off, they can not work for months and months and months. What happens is if I’m a close contact and I take my 14 days off and then somebody else in my family gets in within that time, then I get another 14 days off and then somebody else and another 14 days off. We can’t afford that, and we need to stay within the employment law around these types of things.”

Mr. Bird added that hardship is a different matter. “There are certainly times when people are dealing with things that no human being in our society should be dealing with when it comes to stress or situations in their lives. There’s always the ability to come and talk to us and talk about what situations are, and of course, we have the ability to then make further places for people who are experiencing things that are just not tenable.”

Trustee Hailes said he still felt it wasn’t right. Mr. Bird said he heard him and understood his concerns. “My decision is around the balance between having people at work and the fact that this virus is everywhere, and that close contact no longer means the same thing. Again, following what AHS has said around close contact and that people can be back at work.”

Mr. Bird said they need people at work. “And yes, that does mean like before COVID when people got ill there are difficult things that come about it. Now, does that mean we can’t work with people around their circumstances? Absolutely not. Of course, we can work with people around their circumstances. But as a matter of procedure right now in the division, there is no paid time off if you are a close contact.”

Trustee Linda Wigton joined the conversation and said that contracts stipulated time off and mentioned being cautious. “This is a very slippery slope to start sliding into, and I’m not saying that there’s not important things that you’re saying, but these contracts have to be followed and certainly the superintendent in his role, he’s our one employee, and he’s their employer. He’s saying he’s going to listen if there are individual issues, but he still has to follow those contacts. He has a much closer read of this, and I would trust that he would always keep his staff in mind as to what’s needed for them. You have to look at this case by case. I don’t think it’s the board’s job at this point to wade into contractual types of things with staff even though we are all concerned about it.”