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Lost time for swine flu prompts paid leave proposal

Date Posted: November 20 2009

WASHINGTON (PAI) – As the threat of swine flu outbreaks forcing workers to stay home, unpaid, for long periods of time, the Obama administration is openly endorsing paid family and medical leave for workers.

Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Nov. 10 that “while much has been done to help prepare for a national health emergency like 2009 H1N1” – the official name for swine flu – “more is needed to help protect the economic security of working families who must choose between a pay check and their health and the health of their families.

“That is why the administration supports the Healthy Families Act and other proposals that advance workplace flexibility and protect the income and security of workers,” Harris stated.

The Healthy Families Act would build on current unpaid family leave, which many families can’t afford to take, said its key drafters and advocates, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Debra Ness of the National Partnership of Women and Families.  DeLauro also advocated an emergency paid sick leave bill just to cover families hit with swine flu.

Paid sick leave would mandate that workers at firms that employ at least 15 people each get seven paid sick days per year to take care of themselves or family members.  The problem with present, unpaid leave is that many workers can’t afford to take time off -- even if they’re sick – DeLauro said.  FMLA covers 60% of the workforce, as businesses with fewer than 50 workers are exempt.

“As such, right now 57 million Americans cannot take time off work when they are sick, or when they need to stay home to care for an ailing child or elderly relative.  In fact, almost half of all private sector workers – and 79% of low-income workers – do not have a single paid day off,” the Connecticut congresswoman added. 

“The numbers are particularly galling in the food service industry: Only 15% of workers have paid sick days.  Suffice to say, food service is not an industry where we want employees showing up to work with contagious viral infections,” DeLauro deadpanned.

“All of these workers are forced to put their jobs on the line every time they take a day off.  According to a 2008 study, one in six workers report they or a family member had been fired, suspended, punished or threatened with firing for taking time off due to personal illness or to care for a sick relative.”

The swine flu outbreak has only made the problem worse, testified Desiree Rosado, a special ed assistant in the Groton, Conn., school system.  That’s not because the parents get sick; the kids do.

Rosado had to miss two weeks of work to take care of her three children, suffering from bronchitis or the flu, this fall.

“I get no sick pay, so my paycheck for that period was almost nothing.  That caused tremendous hardship for my family.  My husband and I live paycheck-to-paycheck right now.  We have no choice…It’s a hard road.  And it’s made immeasurably harder because whenever we get sick or our children get sick, we have to decide whether to stay home without pay, or to disregard doctor’s orders and risk getting sicker and infecting others by going to work or school.”

Putting families through such a financial wringer – due to swine flu or any other illness –  is wrong, and uneconomic, DeLauro and Ness testified.  DeLauro even pointed out that sick workers forced to show up on the job because otherwise they wouldn’t get paid are less-than-100% productive, and studies show a $180 billion loss from that.

Business, represented by the Society for Human Resources Management, opposed paid sick leave.  Its witness said most workers have paid leave – vacation.