After receiving input from community advocates, religious leaders, labor unions, and low-wage workers themselves at a Town Hall Meeting, August 22, (see article p. 6) an ordinance requiring paid sick leave for Madison workers was introduced at the Madison City Council, September 20.
The Healthy Families, Healthy City ordinance would require that employers within the City of Madison provide a minimum of 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. For full-time, year round workers that amounts to just shy of 9 sick days per year.
When introduced, the ordinance already has nine alders listed as co-sponsors: Austin King, Brian Benford, Tim Gruber, Isadore Knox, Brenda Konkel, Judy Olson, Santiago Rosas, Mike Verveer, and Robbie Webber. Only two more votes are needed for passage.
Other provisions of the ordinance include:
• Only employers with five or more employees, and only those who work more than 12 hours a week are covered.
• Paid sick time is not required during the first sixty calendar days of employment.
• An employer, at his own expense, may require documentation from a health professional for leave lasting longer than three consecutive days; and employees must provide reasonable advance notice to employers whenever possible.
• In cases where an employer already provides an equivalent amount of paid time off (ie. vacation or personal days) that can be used to cover an illness, the requirements of the ordinance are satisfied.
• The ordinance does not require sick leave benefits to accumulate beyond 72 hours.
• Labor unions are able to negotiate exemptions with their employers. Other exemptions include construction workers and government workers other than those working for the city of Madison.
“These details reflect the very helpful response we've received from all corners of Madison. We're overwhelmed by the positive reception this idea has received,” said 8th District Alder Austin King who is spearheading the effort on the City Council. “This proposal combines the best of the policy goal of paid sick leave for all workers with the pragmatism of accommodating the needs of very small workplaces and those with many part-time employees.”
A recent report in this September’s issue of Madison’s In Business Magazine confirmed what coalition activists had suspected: that a large percentage of Madison’s workforce is being denied the basic right to paid time off to care for themselves or family members during times of illness. In Business reported the results of a 2004 Benefit Survey by the Greater Madison Area Society for Human Resources Management: only 52.9 percent of its 70 members surveyed offer paid sick time off for full-time workers; and only 41.4 percent offer paid sick leave to part-time employees.
The campaign is encouraging supporters to call or write their City Council members (Council@CityofMadison.com) while also canvassing neighborhoods to talk about the sick leave ordinance and build momentum to pass the ordinance.
"This fight for working families won't be easy, and we can expect well-financed opposition from business interests with deep pockets,” said King.
The Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce opposes the measure insisting that such laws be made at the state or federal level. GMCC’s executive director Jennifer Alexander said the group will not engage in compromising on the specifics of an ordinance.
“Unfortunately, instead of engaging in a constructive dialogue, the city's business lobby has chosen to avoid discussion of paid sick leave altogether. They're going to make a bunch of fantastic claims about how destructive paid sick leave would be to the local economy,” King predicted. “Like Chicken Little, their only arguments involve fear-mongering and wild speculation that isn't grounded in economic data.”
Not Bad for Business!
In supporting similar legislation at the federal level, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research pointed to research indicating that benefits would include: reduced contagion in workplaces, less absenteeism, increased worker productivity, faster recovery times, lower turnover rates, and lower overall health care costs.
Reluctant to ruffle any more feathers in the business community, however, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has refused to endorse the ordinance at this time, while saying he’s generally sympathetic with its goals.
“We are confident that a reasonable and studious approach to this issue will result in widespread support among the public, and eventually the full Common Council,” says King. “As with any public process that goes through committees, we expect a lot of input and refinement and compromise to happen along the way, but we also expect a strong ordinance to be adopted by the end of that process."
The Healthy Families, Healthy City Coalition includes the South Central Federation of Labor, Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice, Wisconsin Early Childhood Association, Neighborhood Law Project, Wisconsin Citizen Action, Madison-area Urban Ministry, Student Labor Action Coalition, Poverty Action Network, various local unions and others.