Get Those Sick Workers Out of My Face, Please

You know where you picked up that flu that knocked you flat for two weeks this winter? At a restaurant or retail store that forces its sick workers to work if they want to get paid.

This isn't an issue of entitlements or even workers' rights; it's an issue of public health.

bluegal at Crooks and Liars:

Let's work to make this happen nationwide. From Civil Rights.org

In a victory for workers and labor advocates, the Connecticut legislature recently became the first in the nation to pass a statewide mandate for paid sick days.

Eighty percent of low-wage workers in the United States do not have any paid sick days, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families. S.B. 913 will require employers with fifty or more employees to provide paid sick leave when workers are ill or need to care for their families. With the implementation of this bill, workers in Connecticut will no longer have to decide between feeding their families and staying home from work due to illness.

The really good news about this is that it applies to PART-TIME employees, as well. Too many companies avoid paying benefits to their employees by insisting on a part-time work force.

You should have heard the whining and moaning from Connecticut Republican legislators about how this bill was a...wait for it...."job killer."

You know what hurts a business? I stop shopping at stores when I see an obviously sick employee running a cash register. I can shop at home and not catch something. Shopping does not have to cost me days of being ill myself, let alone facing the misery of passing something on to my three kids.

There is national legislation on this, called The Healthy Families Act, that would enable all workers in the United States to earn up to seven paid sick days a year. Just one more reason we need to kick out the Republicans in the House and remove Blue Dogs from the Senate.