Healthy Families Act Would Ensure Workers Get Paid Sick Leave

by Mike Hall, Feb 13, 2007

We’ve all been there. Maybe it was a raging fever and a churning tummy. Maybe it was you. Maybe it was your son or daughter. Maybe you could call in sick or stay at home to take care of your son or daughter without losing a day’s wages or maybe even your job.

But that’s a big maybe, because nearly half of all private-sector workers don’t have a single day of paid sick leave to take care of themselves or a family member. It’s even worse for low-income workers: 76 percent have no paid sick days whatsoever. In all, says Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, 86 million workers have no paid sick leave to take care of a sick child.

Ness, along with several other health and family professionals, testified earlier today before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension in support of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) Healthy Families Act. The act would require employers with 15 or more workers to provide seven paid sick leave days a year to take care of themselves or a family member. Says Ness:

Millions of Americans are being forced to choose between taking care of a sick child or family member and losing a day’s pay—or even losing a job. In a nation that values families, no worker should have to make this impossible choice.

Americans want to be responsible workers and be able to take care of their families. In 78 percent of today’s homes, both parents work for pay—and a typical couple in America now works close to 90 hours per week. But our policies lag desperately—and families are struggling as a result. We can and must do better—and we will if we truly value families.

The National Partnership for Women & Families is part of a coalition that includes the AFL-CIO, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, ACORN and other community, faith and women’s groups that support Kennedy’s bill.

Says Kennedy:

We need workplace laws that let working men and women be responsible parents, too. The world and the workplace are changing, and our laws have to catch up. Paid sick days are the obvious solution to prevent the spread of illnesses and reduce medical costs.

Before the hearing, Elnora Collins, a home care worker from Chicago told reporters about how difficult it is to work without paid sick leave days.

It’s just not right. I’ve been so sick I can hardly walk and I’m told I have to work or else. I love my job, but everyone gets sick and I can’t afford to lose a day of pay.

In November, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative to require employers to provide paid sick leave for workers. Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, the director the city’s Department of Public Health’s Occupational and Environmental Health agency, says paid sick leave can significantly reduce the spread of infectious diseases and reduce health care costs.

Paid sick leave is a humane policy, and it is also a practical and cost-effective public health policy to reduce disease transmission, avoid unnecessary hospitalization and bring health care costs down.

But even as the committee explores the need for paid sick leave, the Bush administration likely is seeking to make it harder for America’s workers to take unpaid leave through the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The FMLA provides workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year to care for themselves or their loved ones in the times they need help most.

Big Business long has sought to weaken the FMLA since it was enacted in 1993 after strenuous opposition from corporate interests, and in recent weeks, the Department of Labor opened up FMLA to comments, a move many workers’ advocates believe is just a first step toward revising the rules to make it harder for workers to take leave.

Click here to read about the attacks on the FMLA and here to read about Working America’s campaign to protect the FMLA.

The full testimony of today’s witnesses is available at the committee’s website.

 

E-Mail This Article | Digg it | Comments (1)