Part of Laura Berger’s job as a public health nurse is to convince people with communicable diseases to stay at home. That job is made harder, she said, because many workers don’t have the benefit of paid sick leave.
It’s a growing public health concern because respiratory and intestinal illnesses are passed on to school children, the frail elderly and restaurant patrons by workers who can’t afford to take time off from work, she said.
Berger joined other health care providers, teachers, union members and advocates for low-income workers in arguing for an ordinance to require paid sick leave at a public hearing before Madison’s Equal Opportunities Commission, December 14.
If passed, the ordinance would be the first of its kind in the nation. Approximately 39,000 or 18 percent of Madison’s workforce, mostly low-wage earners, would benefit.
“A lot of work has gone into hammering out this ordinance and it seems to me very fair, workable and reasonable for employers,” said Berger, a member of SEIU District 1199.
The proposed ordinance would provide an hour of sick pay for every 30 hours worked, or about nine days a year for a full-time worker.
Employers who already provide an equivalent amount of paid time off - vacation, sick or personal time – that can be used as sick leave, would not be impacted by the ordinance.
The ordinance would provide such benefits to 250-300 seasonal/hourly workers employed by the city of Madison, said David White, a staff representative with AFSCME Council 40. “We never understood why there was a need to deprive workers of this benefit.”
AFSCME Council 40 also represents workers at the Madison Area Rehabilitation Center (MARC) which offers comprehensive sick leave benefits. As a nonprofit, MARC is at a competitive disadvantage with other nonprofits that don’t offer such benefits, says White.
The Healthy Families, Healthy City Coalition estimates that the cost of implementing the ordinance would be, at most, 3.3 percent of a business’ total payroll. That would be only if all workers were eligible and they all used all nine days, and other employees worked added hours to cover for absences.
A student attorney with the Neighborhood Law Project, Abby Hougan, provides legal assistance for low-income workers, many who she says are “on the brink of survival.” Most work in grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries or doing landscaping, home health care or child care.
Hougan talked about ‘Alberto’, a security guard, who had to make a difficult choice between neglecting his responsibility as a parent, or risking a day’s wage and the possibility of being fired. “No parent should have to be afraid to make that choice,” she said.
“When I’m sick or have the flu, the last place I should be is in the classroom,” said Susan Stern, a part-time teacher at Glendale Elementary School. “Infecting other teachers and students creates a really unhealthy environment causing others to miss work and other students to miss school.” That’s why her union, Madison Teachers Inc., is backing the proposed ordinance.
Because Stern has sick leave, she can take time off with her two children when they get sick. “Unfortunately, a lot of children come to school when they are really sick. For many of their parents, staying home is not an option.”
“As a customer, I want to know that the restaurant and retail shop I visit lets its workers go home sick – because it’s the right thing to do – and it’s the healthy thing to do. I don’t want sick employees coming to work and infecting me or others, and I worry about them infecting people who can’t afford to stay home.”
Tammy Coplien, a nurse with the Community Living Alliance and a member of SEIU Local 150, called the risk to the elderly and those with weakened immune systems substantial. “The investment in paid sick leave,” she said, “is obviously an investment for all those involved.”
By the end of the hearing, 46 people registered or spoke in support of the ordinance with only 16 in opposition.
Staunch Opposition
Leading the opposition was Jennifer Alexander, president of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, who joined a handful of others, mostly restaurant owners, who said the ordinance would reduce wages, impose cumbersome record-keeping requirements, and drive jobs out of the city. Alexander asked that public officials reserve judgment until the results of a study commissioned by the Chamber are available.
An attorney with the Neighborhood Law Project, Vicky Selkowe, said the ordinance is designed to provide a floor, “a minimum standard.”
“The current policy is punishing the workers who need this benefit the most,” said Selkowe, a volunteer with the Health Families, Healthy City coalition. The idea that restaurant workers and those who provide health care, child care, and care for the elderly and disabled would be denied the benefit “is simply hard for us to fathom.”
“The coalition is very open to input from the business community as to what would make this ordinance more workable,” Selkowe added.
Such input has been slow in coming from business interests who are intent on defeating the ordinance altogether because, they say, it creates an unworkable “patchwork” of regulation.
Family Values
Two-thirds of low-income women and one-third of moderate-income women do not have paid sick leave, said Lisa Subek who works in a homeless shelter and sees low-income workers who couldn’t pay the rent and lost housing due to illness and the lack of paid sick leave.
“Chicken pox can put them out of their housing; chicken pox can prevent them from putting food on the table,” she said. “It makes sense to pass this ordinance for mothers in our community.”
“We believe that it’s uncivilized and frankly outrageous that workers in the most prosperous nation in the history of the world cannot take this modest expectation for granted,” said Patrick Hickey, director of the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice and the Workers’ Rights Center. “This is the right thing to do – let’s find a way to do it.”
Peggy Haack provided her view gained from 25 years of experience as a childcare provider: “I ask you to imagine waking up with a feverish child and having to decide whether that child goes to day care – or you risk the loss of much-needed income or a much-needed job. As a childcare provider, imagine welcoming this child who is exposing other children to her illness. Or, imagine having to turn that child away, knowing that the consequences for that family might be severe.”
While the policy may present some challenges, especially to employers of childcare workers, said Haack, “it will also make Madison a great place to work and a great place to raise children.”
Haack said the ordinance deals appropriately with a public health issue that allows many low-wage working women to balance work and family.
Josh Healey of the Student Labor Action Coalition also called it a moral issue and a question of family values: “This is about, is the city of Madison going to take care of its families? When we talk about economic development, who is that for – is it for everybody?”
“If it’s going to cost a few more cents for a burger – if I don’t have to worry that there’s flu on that burger, I value that – I’m willing to pay two more cents!”
Speaking on behalf of the South Central Federation of Labor, a major proponent of the ordinance, and as a member of the Teaching Assistants’ Association, Mike Quieto said: “We continually hear from opponents that the community must be friendly to business. When, I ask, will we hear about business being community friendly.”
With an impending labor shortage and an aging workforce, Quieto asked: “Wouldn’t it be nice if young workers actually sought out work in Madison because it was viewed as a great place to work, a place where they could take care of their young families without fear of losing their jobs or their homes?”
Quieto recalled a strike at the Aramark laundry in the late ‘90s where a hundred workers went out over one issue: paid sick leave. “They put their jobs on the line, they walked picket lines. They won paid sick leave – but they should not have had to go through that much effort to get a basic right,” he said.
A vote on the ordinance is expected at the earliest in February.