Bill Would Mandate Paid Sick Days
Some Fear California Business Owners Will Suffer

Fresno Bee, April 2, 2008

By Robert Rodriguez

If you are one of the estimated 6 million California workers without paid sick leave, relief may be on the way.

Assembly Member Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, has introduced a bill that would allow California workers to earn paid sick days for everything from personal illness to recovering from domestic violence.

"People should be able to take time off without losing pay or fearing for their job," said Jeremy Smith, legislative advocate for the California Labor Federation. "It is just common sense."

The bill gives employees in small businesses the ability to accrue paid sick time for up to 40 hours, or five days, each calendar year. It gives all other workers 72 hours, or nine days, per calendar year.

Support for the bill comes from a range of interest groups, including California Labor Federation, ACORN, Labor Project for Working Families, California Nurses Association and California Child Care Resource & Referral Network.

Supporters say paid sick days increase productivity by reducing the spread of illnesses, promote good morale and reduce employee turnover.

California's proposal mirrors others, including in Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio and Washington, D.C. The bill also is similar to one passed by San Francisco voters in 2006.

Opponents, including several business groups, are not happy about it.

Fresno businesswoman Ruth Evans said that while most employers want to provide a good benefit package to their employees, not all can afford to do so.

"Government mandates are not the way to go," said Evans, who chairs the Fresno Chamber of Commerce's Governmental Affairs Council. "This is going to drive business away."

Employers are hard-pressed to offer new benefits when they are struggling to continue offering the ones they have, she said.

"There is only so much an employer can do," Evans said.

Scott Hauge, president of Small Business California in Sacramento, worries that employees might abuse the new benefit.

"What happens if you have an employee who says to you in the afternoon that they have a headache, and they go home?" Hauge asked. "There will be nothing you can do about it."

Margery Minney, executive director of the Valley Caregiver Resource Center in Fresno, provides sick days to her 40 employees and does not recall anyone ever abusing the benefit.

Minney said that as an employer, she encourages employees to take their sick days. She said workers are not productive when they are sick and they increase the possibility of infecting others.

"If you want to maintain healthy employees, you have to support them," Minney said. "And giving our employees time off to take care of themselves or their families is one way to do that."

The reporter can be reached at brodriguez@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6327.