Congress Members Introduce More Paid Sick Leave Legislation – November 18, 2009
A U.S. House committee is set to consider a bill during the week of November 16 that would temporarily require employers to provide paid sick days for employees sent home or told to stay home from work because of the flu.
U.S. Representative George Miller (D-California), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, and Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-California), chair of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee, announced the emergency temporary legislation on November 3. If enacted, the Emergency Influenza Containment Act would guarantee five paid sick days for a worker sent home or directed to stay home by an employer for a contagious illness such as the H1N1 flu. Employees calling in sick on their own wouldn’t trigger the pay requirement.
Find more resources for employers on H1N1 flu – swine flu
A statement from Miller’s office says that in addition to the five days of paid leave, the bill’s provisions include:
- Both full-time and part-time workers (on a prorated basis) in businesses with 15 or more employees would be covered.
- An employer could end paid sick leave at any time by informing the employee that it believes he is well enough to return to work. Employees would be able to continue on unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or existing sick leave policies.
- Under the legislation, employees who follow their employer’s direction to stay home because of contagious illness couldn’t be fired, disciplined, or made subject to retaliation for following directions.
- The bill would take effect 15 days after being signed into law and would end after two years.
The proposal was met with opposition from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which represents small business. NFIB Vice President of Public Policy Brad Close told USA Today that having Washington mandate a certain benefit and a certain leave package “just runs counter to the way small business is run.”
Miller justifies the legislation with figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC estimates that a sick worker will infect one in 10 coworkers. He also says paying for time off can represent a cost savings. “This will not only protect employees, but it will save employers money by ensuring that sick employees don’t spread infection to coworkers and customers, and will relieve the financial burden on our health system swamped by those suffering from H1N1,” Miller said.
Miller’s statement also said that at least 50 million American workers don’t get paid sick leave.
Even before President Barack Obama declared the H1N1 flu a national emergency, the CDC was encouraging employers to adopt flexible leave policies that would encourage ill workers to stay home.
Miller’s bill is the latest effort to legislate some form of paid sick leave. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) is the lead sponsor of a House bill that would require employers with 15 or more employees to provide seven paid sick days a year.
The National Partnership for Women and Families, which has been pushing for a federal paid sick day law, calls Miller’s bill a good first step, but the organization released a statement saying, “The paid sick days law America needs will go further than this initial bill.”
San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have enacted paid sick leave laws, but efforts for similar legislation on the state and federal level haven’t met with success.
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I work full time, my husband is disabled and I contracted the H1N1 virus. I was home for 2 days last month 1 of which was without pay and then I have been home since Monday and can not return to work till the 9th and 4 days this week is also leave without pay. With the mandatory furlough days enacted by the Governor of the State of Oregon, that will be 5 days without pay on my December check. That will totally eliminate Christmas for our family. We live paycheck to paycheck and have just filed Chapter 7. If this law goes into effect, they need to make it retroactive to when the President declared it as a National Emergency. We were told if we are sick, stay home. I have been to the doctor 3 times since I got sick, my fever keeps coming back. So I can’t go to work, this is a hardship on our family and I am sure countless other families who are hit with the H1N1 Flu.
Its a good bill, I hope it passes.
Charlotte
Ms. Miller lives in some fantasy world. Does she really believe employees are going to save their paid leave for when they are really truly sick? If they are like most employees who are granted X number of paid sick days annually, they will use them, sick or not.
Even if it were a good idea, it should be up to the individual states to make the decision. I suppose Ms. Miller would like all the states to be like California — oh by the way, they’re broke because busineeses are leaving in droves.
I think if the government wants employees to be paid when they are absent that they should pay for it, not business. The businesses are already incurring additional costs due to the absence, such as loss production or overtime to get the work done with fewer people or having to pay for temporary employees to cover the people who are out.
So, if “Giveaway” George Miller wants it paid, take it out of his income.
If they are only granted paid sick time if they are sent home vs call in sick then more sick employees will infect the workplace if this is passed. It is not protecting the spread of the flu.
For many years I have been in the healthcare industry and the Director of Human Resources. Our staff do have sick days and I can honestly say that 98% of them take ALL the sick time they are allowed each year and never save or carry over any to the following year. It never fails to amaze me how so many people can be sick each year for the same number of days! If the government passes this, in reality it will just give the majority of staff more paid time off since they all use it to the maxium. The concept is good but they need a REALITY check. Not all businesses can afford this and will place many firms in jeporady.
Most of our 500 plus employees receive 12 paid sick days each year; Marilyn, only a handful abuse it. But back to the original issue – the abusers will continue to abuse – they will just come in, pretend to be sick (cough,cough,cough…) to get sent home and get more free time off. Most who are really sick will call in and not get the free days. Those who come in really sick, will hide it and still won’t take off.
My concern is that it will be very difficult to verify if the reason for the absence is due specifically to the H1 N1 virus.