Staff Infection: Sick Time for Small Businesses
Are you as nice to your employees as you are your flowers and customers?
As many as 43 percent of American workers in private industry don't have paid sick days, according to 2007 data from the Labor Department. An estimated 79 percent of low-wage workers and 80 percent of part-time workers do not have paid sick time, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research.
Although about 135 developed countries have laws requiring private and public employers to provide paid sick leave to full-time employees, the U.S. does not. The Healthy Families Act, reintroduced by Sen. Ted Kennedy, (D-Mass) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3-Conn.) in March 2007 (it was first introduced in 2005 and never passed) would require private and public employers with 15 or more employees to provide a minimum of seven paid sick days a year to full-time workers. The bill is pending. If no action is taken (again) this session, it's back to the drawing board.
Some cities, including Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, filled that void by passing their own paid sick-time requirement. In D.C, employees at businesses with 24 or fewer workers will get three days off, a recent requirement that local florist David Hope, AAF, AIFD, greeted with a "yuck" upon learning of the legislation from this reporter. "It will be abused, people will just add it on to their vacations days and demand to get those days off," said the co-owner of Flower Gallery. Hope does offer vacation days, which can be used as sick time.
The National Federation of Independent Businesses opposes a national law, contending that time-off policies of small businesses are more flexible than what the government would require.
Employers should make clear their policies on time off, both paid and unpaid, experts agree. Flexible schedules that allow employees to switch shifts or stay home unpaid without fear of punishment can help keep sick employees out of the shop (and out of breathing distancing from customers and colleagues).
--Amanda Long
along@safnow.org
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