KITCHENER -- The union representing Waterloo Region paramedics says employees haven't been paid while self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19.

Two paramedics tested positive for COVID-19 last month.

"They became symptomatic and put into isolation at home," said Luke McCann, president of CUPE Local 5191.

They were sent home without pay from their employer.

"Immediately the concern is paying bills and paying your mortgage on time and all these types of things," McCann said. "It's an enormous amount of stress."

McCann said one paramedic's Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) claim was denied.

According to the union, WSIB rejecting the claim on the grounds that paramedics wear personal protective equipment on the job, meaning they must have contracted the disease through community spread, rather than in the workplace.

However, WSIB Chair Elizabeth Witmer said that's not the case.

"The only reason that a claim might be denied would be that there was no test or the test was negative," she said.

Paramedic services across Ontario are challenging that reasoning, saying PPE helps minimize workplace spread, but it's not guaranteed.

Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates has proposed a bill that presumes any essential medical worker who tests positive for COVID-19 got the disease while at work.

"You're an essential worker, you would be covered by WSIB and it would be the responsibility of WSIB to prove that you didn't get COVID in the workplace," Gates said. "Right now, it's the other way around and it's causing financial hardship."

Bill 191 has passed its first reading, but there's no indication on when the full bill might pass.

"We're not going to be able to contain the spread of COVID-19 if workers are forced to choose between getting a paycheque and going to work sick," McCann said.

McCann said that one of the WSIB claims has been approved, but the fight won't be over until Bill 191 passes.