Costco employees are able to apply for short-term disability if they're unwell, but one local St. Albert employee said they're still concerned about a lack of additional paid sick leave.
"I think the lack of paid sick time is a bit of an oversight because sales are doing quite well right now," said the employee, who has worked at Costco for five years. They asked for their name to be withheld due to employment concerns.
"It puts it down to a personal choice where if an employee develops a cough or other minor symptoms, they may have to face the decision to choose between their vacation time or going for an unpaid leave of absence."
Costco has not announced any additional paid sick time for its employees under the age of 65, though the company is paying employees working during the outbreak an extra $2 per hour increase in salary.
When they started feeling sick last month, the employee said they used their unpaid vacation time to go into self-isolation because their paid sick leave had already been used up over the course of the year.
"I do know one person I talked to said that some of the employees are feeling paranoid and tired. I just talked to one person who said she was just about out of sick days and vacation, so that was putting her in a difficult position."
Costco has put in place a number of measures to encourage social distancing and thorough sanitization, the employee said, noting the intention wasn't to 'vilify' the company.
Free food samples are no longer offered, and operations at the food court have been shut down. Employees at the St. Albert location wearing gloves regularly wipe down carts and checkout areas, and are diligent in enforcing social-distancing between customers in line. Plexiglass barriers have also been installed at checkout.
However, the employee said they don't want to see what happened at a Costco location in the United States happen here.
A Costco employee contracted COVID-19 at the company's headquarters near Seattle and died from the virus, as reported by Buzzfeed News. According to the article, the corporate offices did not close and expected employees to return back to work.
Michael Thompson, Costco's assistant vice-president for Western Canada, said the company has made adjustments to their short-term disability policy to better aid employees during the pandemic.
"If someone is ill, whether it's a cold, sniffles or what have you, especially during this time, we don't want them in the workplace," Thompson said.
Employees who are off sick for more than two days are required to apply for the plan, which would cover up to 70 per cent of an employee's previous earnings for an additional 17 weeks, he said.
But if it's related to COVID-19, that two-day waiting period is waved and benefits should flow within 10 days, though that timeline could be less given the provider is no longer requiring a doctors note during this time for coverage, he said.
"Because of the situation we're in now, we're not requiring the provider or third party provider to require medical substantiation for that," Thompson said, noting employees can apply online or through the physical application.
"The St. Albert location as an example would be expected to advise the employee that they're required to apply for those benefits."
