The Right to Call In Sick

[marmar]

from In These Times:


The Right to Call In Sick
Portland joins a growing number of cities adopting paid sick leave ordinances.

BY Ellen Bravo

'I see employees run to the bathroom because they’re throwing up, but a manager doesn’t send them home.'

“I’ve gone to work horribly ill many times,” says Susan Lund, a grocery worker in Portland, Ore. “(Bosses) don’t care, as long as the work is being done. I see employees run to the bathroom because they’re throwing up, but a manager doesn’t send them home.”

That won’t be true for long. On March 13, thanks to the activism of thousands of Portlanders like Lund, the City Council unanimously voted to adopt a paid sick days ordinance. The bill goes into effect in January 2014.

Two weeks later, the New York City Council made a deal for a similar measure, guaranteeing paid sick days for 800,000 workers in firms of 20 employees or more, with job protection for those in smaller firms who have to take off for family illness. Together, the victories gave a big boost to the nationwide movement for paid sick leave. Portland and New York join a growing list of places—San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Seattle; the state of Connecticut—where most workers are guaranteed a set number of paid days off for illness and hardships such as domestic or sexual violence. Similar campaigns are underway in a dozen other cities and states, including Oregon, Massachusetts and Vermont, and support is building for the Healthy Families Act, which would create a national standard.

In each location, the movement for paid sick days is backed by a broad coalition that includes dozens of partners from labor (including unions like UFCW and AFSCME, and Working America and the Working Families Party) together with small-business owners and groups that advocate for women, children, seniors, public health, racial justice and LGBT rights (Portland’s coalition is a member of the Family Values @ Work Consortium, a network of 21 state coalitions working for policies like paid sick days, of which I serve as executive director). But what’s most notable is how these groups have engaged new activists like Lund, who hadn’t been politically active before, but who share the common experience of fearing for their jobs if they or their child gets sick. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/14988/the_right_to_call_in_sick/

[LooseWilly]

1. Paid sick leave... inconceivable!

I think I've only had two jobs in my life that would offer such a thing. Mostly because they were salary jobs, and the boss hadn't figured out a way to conveniently pro-rate pay.

This is like crazy talk.

[derby378]

2. They really need to extend that protection to temporary workers, too

Just because someone works an assignment for Kelly Services or ProStaff doesn't mean that they're any less deserving of equal protection under the law. And in this economy, there's a lot of temps out there.

[Egalitarian Thug]

3. There's a company in Beaverton that has multiple TB outbreaks and

neither the health dept. nor the city did anything about it, just let them keep forcing the workers to come in and risk illness or to spread it. They don't offer health benefits either, so even if the workers didn't come in, they get nothing until it's bad enough that an e-room admits them and calls in CDC.

You can thank Phil Knight for this.

[Wednesdays]

4. K & R

[HiPointDem]

5. kr