The Ontario government’s proposal to reinstate the doctor’s note requirement for employees who call in sick poses a “public health risk,” according to the Canadian Medical Association.

It says that the measure, included in legislation introduced last month to roll back the previous Liberal government’s employment law reforms, flies in the face of what doctors advise their patients to do when they are sick with the common cold or flu: stay at home and get plenty of rest.

“We are urging the Ontario government to reconsider this legislation,” said Dr. Gigi Osler, the president of the Canadian Medical Association. “It’s unnecessary, it adds to the public health risk and it goes against what we would recommend to patients who are sick.”

She added that the requirement will “only add to the burden of an already burdened health-care system” and puts others at risk of getting sick, in particular small children and the elderly.

Under Ontario’s current employment law, passed by the previous Liberal government, employees are granted up to 10 “personal emergency leave” days per year, two of them paid. Employers are banned from asking staff for medical notes.

But Premier Doug Ford’s proposed Making Ontario Open for Business Act, sweeping omnibus legislation that scraps many of the Liberal government’s labour reforms in an attempt to boost competitiveness, lifts that prohibition.

Howard Levitt, a senior partner at Levitt LLP, which specializes in employment and labour law, told CTV News it’s long overdue.

“There is a real abuse of sick leave in this province” he said, adding that this accounts for billions of dollars in lost productivity for companies each year.

“Unfortunately, especially around long weekends in the summer time, too many employees -- if they think they can get away with it -- will simply claim to be sick when they are not sick,” Levitt said.

An Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of the Canadian Medical Association found that 70 per cent of Ontarians are opposed to the change, with eight in 10 saying that the move makes it more likely that they will go work -- even if sick -- to avoid travelling to a doctor’s office to get a note.

“You see an added risk of illnesses being spread to other people in their workplace,” Dr. Osler said.

With a report by CTV News Medical Affairs Specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip