Proponents of legislation requiring many Connecticut companies to offer paid sick leave have been energized by similar federal efforts triggered in part by the swine flu outbreak.
U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd announced last week that he is preparing emergency legislation that will guarantee up to seven days of paid leave for workers infected by the H1N1 virus.
That proposal is modeled after legislation pitched earlier this year in Congress, known as The Healthy Families Act, which would make seven mandatory paid sick days a permanent fixture in the United States.
The Healthy Families Act has not been passed, but it is supported by Dodd and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, among others.
The federal debate on paid sick leave comes on the heels of a more than two-year debate on the issue at the state level.
In its most recent legislative session, the state General Assembly considered a bill that would require companies with 50 or more workers to give employees at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours they work, or up to about six paid days off.
That bill passed the House by an 88-58 vote, but was not taken up in the Senate. A similar bill was proposed a year earlier as well, passing the Senate, but failing to garner enough support in the House.
If the federal government doesn’t act on its legislation, it’s likely the state legislature will take up the issue again in February.
“I think it’s definitely going to be proposed again,” said state Rep. David McCluskey, a Democrat from West Hartford.
McCluskey said workers, who are sick, should have the ability to go home and get paid so they don’t potentially spread their illnesses to others.
He also said it would benefit Connecticut, from a competitive standpoint, to have legislation passed on the federal level. If Connecticut passed its sick leave bill last year, it would have become one of the first states to do so, likely making the state a less attractive place to do business.
Jon Green, executive director of Connecticut Working Families, an organization that has led the charge for paid sick days legislation at the state level, applauded Dodd’s proposal and said legislation is needed to protect public health and family economic security.
His group estimates that 600,000 Connecticut workers lack paid sick days, including large groups in sectors like food service, retail, health care and education.
“Families shouldn’t have to worry that catching a cold might cost you your job, and the public shouldn’t have to worry that the person driving our children’s school buses, or serving their meals, or providing home health care for a loved one, could themselves be coming to work sick and exposing the rest of us to illness.” Green said.
Legislation on the state and federal levels faces fierce opposition from the business community, especially during these tough economic times.
The Connecticut Business & Industry Association, the National Federation of Independent Business, and other business groups vehemently opposed the paid sick leave bill when it came up for debate last session.
Andrew Markowski, state director of the NFIB, said he expects paid sick leave legislation to come up again in the next session, but that its passage would be ill advised because it restricts an employer’s flexibility, and would hurt workers in the long run.
He said if employers are forced to provide paid sick leave days, they would likely cut back on their workers health insurance coverage or vacation days.
It could also make some employer’s reduce their work force levels below minimum requirements, so they don’t have to comply with the measures.
“It’s never a good policy to tie the hands of business,” Markowski said. “It will prevent companies from hiring or expanding.”
Dodd announced his emergency legislation a day after he hosted a roundtable discussion on swine flu with Connecticut public health officials, school administrators, and paid leave advocates.
In a conference call with Connecticut reporters last week, Dodd said pandemics will be more common in the future, so making this legislation something that is permanent is important to him.
“Workers should have paid sick leave as a matter of basic fairness,” Dodd said. “But now sick leave is a matter of keeping Americans safe from this pandemic — and from the next one, whatever it may be.”
Under his emergency legislation, workers will be given up to seven paid sick days to use for leave due to their own flu-like symptoms, medical diagnosis or preventive care, to care for a sick child, or to care for a child whose school or child care facility has been closed due to the spread of flu.
The bill would go into effect 15 days after being signed into law, and it would sunset after two years.
In terms of garnering support during the next state legislative session, McCluskey said a lot will depend on the state of the economy, noting that there will be resistance to pass a bill if businesses are still struggling.
