Showing posts with label paid sick days. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paid sick days. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

How Elected Officials Can Celebrate Men This Father’s Day

Posted by American Forum at 2:55 PM

By Ellen Bravo and Dan Mulhern

After being inundated with news reports of male public figures behaving badly, Father’s Day gives us a much-needed opportunity to turn attention to the many fathers and husbands who work tirelessly to support their families -- – and to call on elected officials to move policies that allow all men to be good fathers, sons and husbands without being punished for it at work.

First, we saw Mark Kelly take time off from his space training to be at the bedside of his wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, as she recovered from the traumatic shooting.

Then, in a more celebratory moment, Colby Lewis and Ian Desmond told the baseball league and fans that while they loved the game, the birth of a child warranted missing one or two.

Happily but not surprisingly, the Texas Rangers are still in first place, and the Endeavor shuttle launch was a success.

The iconic photos of Mark Kelly camped out at Gabrielle Giffords’ bedside and holding her hand offer poignant evidence that men, as well as women, respond to a loved one’s crisis by wanting to be right by that person’s side.

Scientific evidence demonstrates that the presence of these men is not just sentimental or symbolic. Babies whose fathers have been more actively involved with their care score higher on a key infant development test and are more socially responsive. A year later, these babies show more resilience when faced with stressful situations.

Similarly, the involvement of loved ones is critical to the recovery of brain trauma patients. According to Dr. Stephan Mayer, director of the Neurological Intensive Care Unit at Columbia University Medical Center, “the common denominator is a present, loving and supportive family. I can’t say how important it is to have your loved ones around you helping you battle through.”

It’s awesome that these men were able to take time off to support their wives and welcome their babies into this world, and they could do it all without worrying about their job. But the policies that allowed these high-profile and high-powered fathers and husbands to be with their families at critical junctures are sorely lacking for most the dads who are working hard to support their families.

Consider this: the law allowing men to take family leave covers only half the country’s workers. Of those who have it, many cannot afford to take it because the time is unpaid.

Two in five private sector workers have no paid sick days, and the vast majority of workers who do are not allowed to use the time to care for a sick family member.

Without paid sick days or paid family leave, which are policies in nearly every other country around the world, too many of our dads miss the births of their children and are unable to stay home to care for their kids when they’re sick because of the fear of losing their job, or being unable to miss a day’s wages.

In this season of commemorating fathers and mothers, leaders across the country have a chance to give families a really meaningful gift: support for policies that allow men to be caregivers as well as breadwinners.

Just this week, Governor Dan Malloy will signed the country’s first statewide law letting workers earn paid sick days that they can use for their own illness or that of a family member. City Council members in Philadelphia are expected to pass a similar bill, and may be joined this year by decision-makers in Seattle and New York and voters in Denver.

In other states and cities across the country, leaders are realizing that paid sick days is a policy that’s good for the public health, good for working families and good for the economy. And Members of Congress can sign on to the Healthy Families Act, a national paid sick days bill re-introduced by Senator Tom Harkin and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro.

Congress can also support the President’s inclusion of $23 million in the federal budget for grants to states to help establish family leave insurance funds that will ensure men and women are able to afford to take care of themselves and their families after the birth of a child or during longer term illnesses. This policy is also gaining traction: California and New Jersey have established programs, Washington has passed one; several others are exploring paid family leave insurance.

Few men can throw a ball 90 miles an hour or hurtle into space at 17,500 miles an hour. But all our dads are working hard, and they deserve time to be loving family members.

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Ellen Bravo is Executive Director of Family Values @ Work Consortium, a network of 15 state coalitions working for policies like paid sick days and paid family leave. Dan Mulhern teaches at Cal Berkeley and works with the Families and Work Institute (he’s married to former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm).
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Copyright (C) 2011 by the American Forum. 6/11

 

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Celebrate March! Look Forward for Healthy Families

Posted by American Forum at 2:10 PM

AMERICAN FORUM

By Cindia Cameron

In March we look forward – eagerly anticipating the arrival of spring; and we look to the past – celebrating National Women’s History Month. Looking back, we might ask what our pioneer activists in women’s rights would say about tough choices working women still make to keep their families afloat. Looking forward, we can celebrate Women’s History Month by taking action to pass the Healthy Families Act.

One inspiration for action is the story of a young mother named Tahirah who lives in Denver, CO. At 26, Tahirah found a dream job: crew leader in an airport restaurant. The wages were low and the hours long. Still, the job offered a chance to supervise and a clear path to the management track. But there were two wrinkles: her preschool-age daughter has asthma and this job did not provide any paid sick days.

Tahirah managed to keep her job and home from falling apart – for a while. But there were times when her daughter was sick and her manager would not allow her to leave work. There were also times when Tahirah left her daughter home sick because she simply couldn’t risk being fired. One day her daughter was rushed to the hospital. A friend called to tell Tahirah to meet them there. But her manager didn’t give her the message for hours. Eventually she was forced to leave that job. She’s found others, but still none that offer the paid sick days she needs.

Everyone gets sick. Everyone deserves time to get better. The United States is the only developed nation in the world where no law provides this basic labor standard. Nearly 40 percent of private sector workers
in this country have no paid sick days. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, this number includes 78 percent of hotel workers and 85 percent of food service workers. It’s clear who suffers: struggling families, low-income working women, their children. However everyone in the community is affected.

As consumers we eat in restaurants where most servers face a choice between coming to work sick or losing income and possibly a job. As family members, many of us have parents or grandparents living in nursing homes where staff members face this same impossible choice.

Providing access to paid sick days will help struggling state budgets. Researchers in New Hampshire for example, found that workers with paid sick days are 14 percent more likely to visit a medical practitioner, which could translate into fewer severe illnesses and hospitalizations. They conclude that guaranteed paid sick days would lower medical costs by reducing emergency room and hospital use.

The solution for families, workplaces and public health is for Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act. This legislation would allow full-time workers to earn seven paid sick days each year to care for themselves or a family member. It would offer low-wage women in particular, the means to safeguard both their health and their jobs in these difficult economic times.

A national labor standard of paid sick days is a fitting way to honor women -- past, present and future -- by honoring their dual responsibilities: work and family.
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Cindia Cameron serves as organizing director for 9to5, National Association of Working Women, and chair of the Georgia Job/Family Collaborative.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by the American Forum. 3/10

 

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Thursday, January 7, 2010

What Workers Want: Paid Sick Days

Posted by American Forum at 1:50 PM


By Linda Meric

Last year, in our tough economy, many of us asked for necessities and basics as holiday gifts. Among the gifts that would mean the most to families is the passage of the Healthy Families Act, introduced by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, along with Representative Rosa DeLauro, in the 111th Congress this past May.

It wasn’t the first time that federal legislation guaranteeing workers a minimum number of paid sick days had been introduced. Previous efforts were unsuccessful. But now, the Healthy Families Act has 145 Congressional co-sponsors and has been endorsed by the Obama administration.

So health professionals, civil rights groups, labor unions, educators, faith organizations, elected officials and women’s groups like 9to5 are optimistic about its passage.

There’s something wrong when workers have to choose between keeping a job and taking care of themselves or their families when someone gets sick. There’s something wrong when going to a routine medical appointment or other preventative care could result in a pink slip. There’s something wrong when a domestic violence survivor seeking help or services is punished with the loss of her job.

There is so much at stake for women and their families here.

Women are still the ones who most often serve as caregivers when children, elderly parents, spouses or other relatives are ill. It is often mom who takes the children to get immunized or to other routine medical appointments. And, domestic violence disproportionately affects women. But taking the time off to care for our families or ourselves puts us at risk for losing our jobs. A survey widely reported this year showed that 1 in 6 respondents had been fired, suspended, reprimanded or threatened on the job for taking time off when they or a loved one was sick, or they knew someone who had faced those dire consequences.

9to5 members without paid sick days, like Latisha Carter in Milwaukee, report going to work with H1N1 flu rather than staying home to get better – and Latisha was pregnant at the time – for fear of losing their jobs. Those like Tahirah Foster in Denver report being forced out of good jobs because of a lack of paid sick days. In Tahirah’s case, her employer refused to allow her to balance her obligations at work with her obligations as a parent of a toddler with asthma. Those like Angel Warner in northern California report struggling mightily to stay well – using hand sanitizer constantly and wearing a protective mask at work. Angel doesn’t have paid sick days on the job and fears she’ll get sick with H1N1 as some of her co-workers have, losing pay or even her job as others have. Angel just can’t afford that in these tough economic times.

No one should have to work under those conditions – especially since paid sick days are not only good for employees but good for employers, too.

When federal paid sick days legislation passes, the huge cost to employers of workers coming in sick, lowering productivity and spreading contagions to other workers and customers, will be mitigated. When federal paid sick days legislation passes, employers will no longer be saddled with the turnover, human resource and retraining costs associated with firing some employees and hiring new ones.

When the Healthy Families Act passes, it will be a win for workers, a win for their employers, a win for our schools and communities, and a win for all of us.

We must speak out. Contact our members of Congress. Remind them that we’re moving into an election year and they must voice their support for this basic labor standard now. Tell them you want them to finish Senator Kennedy’s work by making the gift of paid sick days a reality for the 50 million workers who lack paid sick days and the 100 million workers who don’t have a sick day they can use to care for an ill child or other family member.
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Meric is executive director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by the American Forum. 1/10

 

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