It’s being applauded as a step in the right direction, but other employers have to follow suit.

That’s the reaction of NAPE President Jerry Earle to a Department of Health decision to eliminate a requirement for sick notes for employees of the province’s regional health authorities for respiratory illnesses.

Earle this week called the requirement for sick notes an unnecessary health risk as greater precautions are being taken to protect the public from the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

He’d like to see the directive apply to other government departments.

He cited an example involving a social worker with a regional health authority who doesn’t require a sick note, and a social worker who is with CSSD, who does.