Yukon continuing care workers forced to take sick days for vaccine side effects, union says

The head of the Yukon Employees' Union says many continuing care staff are missing work because of side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine.

Union president Steve Geick said Tuesday there was a big spike in the number of continuing care workers calling in sick last week. He said 60 per cent of staff at the Thompson Centre in Whitehorse missed work on Feb. 5.

But the Yukon government says that figure isn't accurate. 

Amy Riske, the assistant deputy minister of continuing care with Yukon's Department of Health and Social Services, said the percentage of continuing care workers across all facilities who missed work was closer to 10 per cent. That's higher than normal, but not enough to affect service levels, she said.

"We have processes for coverage and so those are all the same things that we've been using when staff are unable to attend," Riske said. "Nothing has changed with our regular approach and all resident care was provided."

Aimee O'Connor, a spokesperson for the Public Service Commission, said the 60 per cent figure likely comes from a single unit at the Thompson Centre where three of five staffers missed work last Friday. She said 10 per cent of staff at the facility missed work.

Yukon is well into its second round of vaccinations for health care workers.

Unfair to be forced to use sick days, says union head

According to a study by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, half of the people who get the second Moderna shot report moderate to severe side effects such as headaches, fatigue, muscle ache or joint pain. The symptoms are similar to COVID-19 but are usually resolved within two days, according to the study.

Geick also said continuing care workers are being told to use sick leave days if they feel unwell after getting their second shot of the Moderna vaccine. He said it's unfair for workers to be forced to use up sick days after getting vaccinated and that it's doubly unfair to auxiliary on-call workers, who don't get sick days. 

"They [the government] should have maybe given a little more thought to what are they going to do rather than just this knee-jerk reaction," Geick said.

He said the health department should have been better prepared for staff missing work because of vaccine side effects.

Adding to the confusion, some workers aren't sure if they should be self-isolating, or if they're merely feeling unwell from their booster shot, said Geick.

"I understand that we've never been through this type of pandemic, like, I totally get that...," he said. "But before issuing something like this on a spur of the moment decision or something, I think they really, really need to look at what the backup plan is."

Riske said the department did stagger vaccinations for frontline workers in order to minimize workplace disruptions.