This boss doesn’t mind sick days
From the Philadelphia Inquirer
By Dewetta Logan
The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce is fighting a City Council measure that would require businesses to allow their employees to earn paid sick days. Although the past few years have not been easy for area business owners like me, the chamber’s contention that a few paid sick days will force businesses to shut their doors is simply not true.
I own and run a small child-care center in West Philadelphia, employing seven child-care providers who look after 30 children under the age of 6. It’s not a business designed to make extraordinary profits, but I work hard to make sure we earn enough to keep our doors open.
The children in our care are the top priority for my business, so it doesn’t make sense to have one of our employees working while sick. When members of my staff aren’t feeling well, they can’t give the children their full attention. Furthermore, coughs and colds can spread quickly among children, and I don’t want to be responsible for sickening a child who started the day healthy.
Parents struggle to juggle sick kids, jobs
From Cincinnati Enquirer:
Batavia School District Nurse Cathy Meyer often finds herself tangling with parents over sending their kids to school sick.
And the students don’t just have the sniffles.
One day last month, three kids were vomiting as they got off the school bus.
When she confronts parents about sending kids who are sick, she learns the truth:
The uncertain economic climate has resulted in more kids coming to school ill, because their parents fear losing their jobs if they stay home with their kids.
“It’s a genuine fear, and I understand it.” Meyer said. “If they lose their job, they might not get another one.”
“I’ve had parents drop their kids off and tell me that their child was running a fever, so they gave them Tylenol because they just can’t miss work. It’s a common occurrence,” said Sharyl Iden, nurse for the Southgate Independent School District and president of the Kentucky School Nurses Association.
While they sympathizes, they continue to send letters home with all students, reiterating the policy: Students cannot return to school until they’re free of fever, vomiting or diarrhea for 24 hours.
“We have to protect everybody,” Meyer said.
Sending sick kids to school or child care centers isn’t a new issue but while no one keeps statistics, the anecdotal consensus is that it’s happening more often now because of the economy.
Staying home to care for a sick child is not an option for the more than 40 million working people who don’t have sick leave, paid or unpaid, for themselves or to care for a child. In a tough economy, some parents who are allowed time off fear that taking the time will make them a target when layoff decisions are made.
A big win for voters: Wisconsin court upholds Milwaukee voter-approved paid sick days law
Via Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce:
It’s been a long fight, but the will of the voters has prevailed in Milwaukee – for now. Yesterday, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld Milwaukee’s voter-approved paid sick days ordinance, nearly two and a half years after its initial passage.
Passed by a 69% majority (and now affirmed by the courts), the ordinance will soon allow 120,000 working people in the city of Milwaukee to earn between five and nine paid sick days per year, depending on the size of their employer.
Despite overwhelming support from the Milwaukee electorate in the November 2008 election, the ordinance was challenged in court by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC).
The MMAC, Milwaukee’s chamber of commerce and a powerful business lobby, found no statutory flaws in the ordinance, so they instead challenged it on shaky procedural grounds. A lower court granted an injunction, and implementation of the voter-approved ordinance was put on hold.
On Thursday the Wisconsin Appellate Court found against all six challenges made by the MMAC, vacating the injunction and ruling in favor of 120,000 working people in Milwaukee.
However, the fight continues in Milwaukee as business interests are again trying to take away the voice of the voters. Wisconsin’s State Senate recently passed AB41, which would again attempt to overturn Milwaukee’s voter-approved law by stripping some legislative powers away from cities.
A recent study from San Francisco – which has a similar requirement – proves paid sick days result in benefits for workers and business alike, with minimal negative impact.
Paid Sick Days Good for Business, Employees
From the Hartford Courant:
By Louis Lista
Earlier this year, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy addressed the Connecticut Business and Industry Association and voiced his support for legislation requiring large businesses in Connecticut to provide employees with a few paid sick days a year. The CBIA, the state’s main business lobby, was up in arms. To hear them tell it, granting a few paid sick days a year is just too expensive for Connecticut’s employers.
As a successful business owner and CBIA member, that’s not how I see it. In my experience, providing a few paid sick days is smart business — not to mention vital to the health and economic well-being of my employees.
I opened the Pond House Cafe in Elizabeth Park in 1999. Particularly in the restaurant industry, the need for paid sick days should be obvious. In these difficult times, restaurant workers are barely scraping by. Few of us — especially food service workers — can afford to lose a day’s pay.
I provide paid sick days because I have an obligation not just to my dedicated employees but also to my customers. It would be unhealthy, not to mention bad business, to have sick workers preparing and serving food.
Why do paid sick days matter to you? Let’s hear your story!
The Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce is collecting stories about paid sick days, and they want to hear from you. Your contribution will help more people understand why paid sick days are so important in today’s workplace.
It’s easy to do, anonymous (if you want) and will only take a couple of minutes — click here to learn more and get started.
Your help needed to pass Family Care Act enforcement bill
Cross-posted from the Washington Family Leave Coalition:
Since the late 1980′s , Washington’s Family Care Act (FCA) has helped ensure workers can use their paid sick days or other paid time off to care for a sick family member. For the most part, it’s worked well — but the FCA doesn’t give state agencies authority to stop employers from retaliating against workers who use the FCA.
Lawmakers are now considering two bills to create modest enforcement provisions for the FCA. We need your help to get this legislation passed and delivered to the Governor’s desk!
It’s easy: just call the state legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and say you’d like to leave a message for your state Representatives and state Senator. (You’ll need to give your street address for your message to get to the right office.) If you prefer, you can also look up your legislators here and send each of them an email.
The best message is in your own words – but here are a few talking points you can use:
- I urge your support for (“House Bill 1828” if speaking with your Representative; “Substitute Senate Bill 5263“, if speaking with your Senator).
- For most employees and employers in the state, the Family Care Act has been working well. Unfortunately, in some cases follow up and enforcement is necessary.
- When people can care for their families, we all benefit from reduced health care costs, and employers benefit from better productivity and higher morale.
- Children and adults get better more quickly when a family member is present. Follow up care is improved when family members are able to hear doctor’s instructions.
Sandwich Generation in a Pickle?
A scene from the documentary "The Sandwich Generation" (photo: Duke Innovation Program)
Cross-posted from MomsRising.org (re-posted from Working Mother Magazine):
While all working women would benefit from access to paid sick leave, the latest data from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) shows that 44 million workers in the U.S. did not have access to a single paid sick day during 2010.
A growing segment of women are facing an incredibly difficult battle in balancing work and family obligations. Women in the “sandwich generation,” or those who care for a child under the age of 18 while also caring for an elderly relative, face significant difficulty in fulfilling their responsibilities at the workplace while offering the necessary care to their loved ones.
And it is working mothers who disproportionately face this unique challenge. Research indicates that women are the primary caretakers of their children and are most often the parents who stay home with a sick child, schedule their children’s doctors’ appointments and take care of organizing follow-up care. Consequently, half (49 percent) of working mothers must miss work when their child is sick with a minor illness, such as a cold or ear infection (compared with 30 percent of working fathers).
Similarly, according to a 2010 study from Metlife, working women provide the majority of care to older frail, disabled or chronically ill relatives, and demographic trends indicate that a greater number of employees of all ages will assume the role of family caregiver because of our increasingly aging population.
Juggling all these responsibilities proves to be very challenging and can lead to some very negative outcomes.
44 Million U.S. Workers Lacked Paid Sick Days in 2010
Via the Institute for Women’s Policy Research:
WASHINGTON — New research from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) finds that, after correcting for job tenure requirements imposed by employers, only 58 percent of private sector employees in the U.S. had access to paid sick days in 2010. Overall, 44 million private sector employees in the U.S. lacked paid sick days.
“With unemployment so high and job searches taking so long, greater access to earned paid sick days will help ensure that workers won’t lose their jobs if they get sick or a child needs care.” Read more…
Businesses and paid sick days
The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) has launched a new website, “Businesses and Paid Sick Days,” which is a one-stop-shop for information on businesses and paid sick days.
You’ll find stories of employers, relevant resources, and news – and a list of over 100 supportive businesses nationwide! And it’s a great resource for business owners, workers, and others interested in learning why paid sick days are good for business. On the website you can find:
- Quotes and stories from business owners who believe paid sick days offer more than a competitive advantage — it’s simply the right thing to do.
- A list of news stories about business and paid sick days, like an article recognizing an unspoken “culture of illness” that puts personal productivity and the productivity of a company on the line.
- Resources that make the case for businesses to support paid sick days, like sample time-off policies from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Browse the website, it’s a great place to find information and resources about paid sick days!
Business owners agree: Paid sick days help them turn a profit
We’ve pointed out before that a minimum paid sick days standard is good for businesses. It helps keep employees productive, workplaces healthy and businesses profitable – not to mention preserve public health by ensuring sick workers don’t infect others. Well guess what? More than a few business owners agree.
In a recent article published in thehill.com, two small business owners in Texas write about why their employees don’t need workplace flexibility – they also need a minimum standard of paid sick time:
It’s essential that flexibility also includes paid time off. We want workers to stay home when they’re sick and not infect others – and they can’t if the time isn’t paid, or if taking off routinely results in discipline.
It is reasonable to assume people (and their children) will get sick. If employees are unable to earn paid sick days, they are far more likely to go to work sick, infecting others employees, customers, and lowering workplace productivity. These business owners understand that providing paid sick days doesn’t just help keep their employees productive at work. It keeps them out of the workplace when they are ill, giving them time to recover without losing a paycheck.
These two in Texas aren’t the only ones. At KPMG, flexible work hours allow workers to be productive employees, without sacrificing their duties as parents or caregivers. And in San Francisco, which adopted a paid sick days requirement in 2007, both the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the Golden Gate Restaurant Association have noted that earned sick time had not caused undue hardships for members. The Executive Director of the Restaurant Association has even gone as far as to say, “paid sick days ‘is the best public policy for the least cost.’”
It’s not enough for these to be voluntary standards, as those small business owners in Texas tell us:
We appreciate the government’s role educating employers and encouraging best practices. But it also must set reasonable labor standards, such as paid sick days and family leave insurance plans. That gives employers like us a level playing field. And it guarantees a minimum of protection to ALL workers.
Allowing all workers to take a day off without penalty when they or they children get sick can save the business thousands of dollars in lost productivity, wages, and health care costs. Paid sick days help workers and businesses alike maintain economic stability, especially during times of economic uncertainty.
