Lawmakers Consider Paid Sick Leave Mandate

By Meghna Chakrabarti
Jul 18, 2011, 3:40 PM
5 Comments

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(Peter Gerdes/Flickr)

You’re in a restaurant. Your waitress approaches your table with your meal. And then…

She sneezes.

And you wonder, if she’s got a cold, why is she not at home.

Well, we ask this question because currently, the United States has no national sick leave law. And just last month, Connecticut became the first state in the country to enact a law requiring paid sick leave to most hourly employees.

Massachusetts may become the second state.

Two bills on Beacon Hill would mandate paid sick leave for all Massachusetts employees. The proposals, if passed, would go farther than Connecticut’s law.

Which is why many advocates say now is exactly the time to be pushing for paid sick leave in the Commonwealth. While small business owners and retailers say – in the midst of a recession, with the state not fully rebounding – you couldn’t ask for a worse time to yoke employers with another unfunded mandate from the state.

The debate over paid sick leave. That’s today’s talker.

Guests:

Elizabeth Toulan, director, Massachusetts Paid Sick Leave Coalition; senior attorney, Greater Boston Legal Services
Bill Vernon, director, Massachusetts Office of the National Federation of Independent Business
Erin Calvo-Bacci, owner, Bacci Chocolate Designs and The Chocolate Truffle

Other stories from this show:

Paula

I work at an espresso bar. If one of us is sick, there is no incentive to stay home. We lose the money from time off. We have to find someone to replace us. We risk anger from our co-workers if we don’t show up because they have to work the shift down a person.
When I was in the business world, a lot of people came to work when they were sick. But they didn’t risk the health of the customer.
Kathy

The anti-worker guest was saying this would be unfair to businesses in the hospitality industry. Really? You are advocating for sick people to go to work while sick and then prepare and serve food to the public?

Really?
http://earnedsickdaysphilly.com Marianne

Bill Vernon has been calling this a one size fits all policy. Actually, it is anything but. Businesses can offer workers sick time through the use of personal days, sick days, vacation days – whatever makes the most sense for their business. There is a number of sizes for this law – the only one that Massachusetts is asking for is that businesses don’t use size 0.
Erin

So sad I wasn’t on, but thank you very much for reaching out to me. Please keep in mind Massachusetts is already a difficult place to run a competitive small business and this bill will make it more difficult because it is not a one size fits all model. I have had former employees abuse unemployment benefits so how will we keep people from abusing sick days? This
bill will cost businesses more than the good its intended for. If this bill
passes, businesses like mine will face the strong possibility of closing and it
will certainly prohibit job growth in Massachusetts.
Erin

In regards to “sick employees” because we are serving and manufacturing “food” we don’t allow sick employees to come into work because it’s a public health issue. We value our employees and we work hard to take good care of them by offering flexible schedules to meet the needs of their lives. However this legislation will discourage small businesses from hiring.

Hosts Meghna Chakrabarti and Anthony Brooks introduce us to newsmakers, big thinkers and artists and bring us stories of relevance to Bostonians here and around the region. Live every weekday at 3.

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Lawmakers Consider Paid Sick Leave Mandate