Building on Health Reform Momentum, NYC Workers Push for Paid Sick Days

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5755/building_on_health_reform_momentum_nyc_workers_push_for_paid_sick_days/

Saturday March 27 6:20 am

By Michelle Chen

Now that newly passed healthcare reform legislation in Washington promises to extend coverage to tens of millions nationwide, activists in New York City want to make sure sick workers aren't prevented by their bosses from taking care of their health.

As we've reported before, on the local and national level, the struggle for paid sick leave runs parallel to the health care reform movement, merging workplace justice with the right to universal access. The policy—yet another area where the United States differs from its Western industrialized counterparts—would allow some time off from work for sickness or to care for an ill child, without being penalized in lost wages. The initiative has evoked winces of pain from New York's business lobby, who feared the impact on employers in the midst of a recession.



The City Council bill introduced this week--a modified version of a legislation that died last year--would offer up to five paid sick days per year, based on hours worked, for employees at small businesses, and nine paid sick days at large firms. The legislation would also bar employers from retaliating against an employee for using the paid leave time. Spearheaded by a coalition of grassroots groups and progressive city councilmembers, the bill dovetails with a similar ordinance passed in San Francisco.

This year, the passage of health care reform—and growing awareness of the massive gaps that remain in ensuring equitable, comprehensive care for all—has reinvigorated the campaign.

At a rally announcing the introduction of the New York bill, Gabino Hernández a Brooklyn resident who immigrated from Mexico and is now an activist with the grassroots group Make the Road New York, recalled running the harrowing gauntlet between an unsafe workplace and an inhumane employer:

FULL story at link.