It's the next round in the ongoing battle between organized labor and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: paid sick leave in light of the swine flu epidemic.
Labor has long supported mandatory paid sick leave. Now, in light of the H1N1 flu epidemic, labor and labor-friendly Democrats are trying to pass legislation through Congress that would mandate paid sick leave for American workers--they could earn up to 7 days under a bill proposed by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CA), the Senate analogue of which was introduced by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT). DeLauro's bill would only apply to businesses that employ 15 or more workers.
Supporters of the legislation are presenting it as an emergency
response to swine flu, as more Americans are getting sick this year but don't get paid
for their time off. They make a health argument for the policy, too: if a
food-service-industry worker, for instance, gets swine flu but can't
afford to miss work, it puts more people at risk of infection.
That said, it's an effort to pass a general sick-leave policy:
it's not that people who get swine flu would get extra sick days--it's
that everyone would get sick days, which labor has wanted for a long
time.
As part of this push, the Service Employees International Union has launched an online petition against the Chamber. "Despite widespread support for this measure, the U.S. Chamber is trying to kill it," SEIU says.
The Chamber says it does not oppose the legislation and that DeLauro has proposed and that the it doesn't have a policy on mandatory paid sick leave. It also accuses SEIU of using inaccurate data on how many Americans have paid sick leave: SEIU says 30 percent; the Chamber says 83 percent.
Like Yankees vs. Red Sox, Yin vs. Yang, and Spy vs. Spy, the labor/Chamber feud is a contrast in structural opposites that may actually never end, progressing through the ages until both are locked in deadly combat as the last escape vessel leaves the imploding Earth...nor would our political world be complete without it.
Sick leave is not a new battleground, but the H1N1 epidemic has brought it back into the fore.
I think companies without sick time which serve the public (e.g. restaurants, hotels, Disneyland, etc.) should simply have to post their policy. That way one would know that the person preparing their meal might be at work in spite of having swine flu.
Brian
Brian, that doesn't work if the employee already burned through their paid time, or the paid time doesn't account for the tips received (but not reported - wink, wink, wink). Just because an employer pays sick days doesn't mean all the workers at work are healthy. So posting their paid-time-off policy only provides a false reassurance. Similar to that sign in the bathrooms about washing their hands. We feel better, even though we're not sure they all wash their hands every time sufficient enough to kill all germs.
I'm for companies paying for sick days. What I see in most companies these days is lumping it all together into "paid time off" (PTO), so you don't have to pretend your "sick" to extend your vacation.
I'm not for the government (federal, state or local) mandating it though. Businesses only should be required to keep their workers informed as to their policy. Workers can then decide if that policy, pay, benefits, work schedules, etc and so on are acceptable to them.
My question is, when will the government mandate that workers show up on time, dressed appropriately for work, and for them to be cheerful, or at least polite to the customers and their fellow employees and stay till qujitting time. I'd be all for a "worker responsibility" bill.
I can dream, right?
No, no, no!
The most important issue right now is the need for legislation mandating that all doorways be a minimum of 4.56 feet wide to accommodate the public problem of severe obesity.
Seriously, the more mandates required, the more removed we become from common sense. Reliable employees working for good companies have reasonable benefits already. If not, retrain and relocate.
For more than a decade, I earned almost six figures, then was laid off in a major reorganization. With sheer discipline, I banked most of that income, so my current $9/hr. retail job is just petty cash; my investments make more than I do.
They weren't hiring, didn't need anyone. I offered to push a broom at minimum wage for 12 hrs./wk. for the first month, until they realized I was worth more, and offered me full-time.
This is my second job since the layoff, non-union. I quit the first job in disgust over union abuse. I saw an employee come to work with a hangover, trip over a pallet, and claim disability. No blood, no bruise, he drove himself to the emergency room, then took 9 months off with WC pay claiming back pain. When he did not visit the doctor regularly or check in with the manager as required, he was fired when he finally tried to return to work. The union got his job back, and he was as lazy as ever, a fine 20-year union member.
Another guy was caught stealing. I don't know how, but his firing was also reversed.
Our sense of entitlement has eroded our work ethic, initiative and sense of reason. How much has union abuse added to your price of groceries? More than you know. Go ahead, jack up prices more with paid sick days. And watch more local owners close up shop in disgust.
The US Chamber does not oppose paid sick leave legislation for workers who have n1h1. It recognizes that this issue has many dimensions and is currently exploring whether legislation would be helpful without being overburdening. Inform someone today! We should be proactively combating negative comments on the US Chamber’s Fan Page… http://www.facebook.com/uschamber?ref=ts