The Paid Sick Days Act – Hearing Update
Dear MPLC (Mass Paid Leave Coalition) Members -
That’s right! The hearing was “excellent,” to quote Sen. Dan Wolf, who represents the Cape and the Islands and is the Senate Chair of Labor and Workforce Development. Thanks to everyone in the MPLC and your organizations’ members and networks, for organizing and putting on a fantastic press event and hearing on the Paid Sick Days Act.
“The evidence is clear,” stated Sheila Decter, Executive Director of JALSA. “The studies of San Francisco demonstrate clearly that paid sick days are good for everyone, workers and business owners.”
The list of folks to thank is long. Thank each and every one of you for everything you have done and continue to do to make the Paid Sick Days Act the law in Massachusetts.
A special thanks goes out to the folks in the grassroots who organized their members and brought them to the state house in large numbers, many of whom testified for the first time and showed all of us the power of their convictions. Some folks said they had butterflies, but no one would have known that by witnessing the powerful impact of their testimony. Please keep in mind that there were two other hearings on important bills that demanded the time and attention of our grassroots members and allies. The turn-out we had at the hearing is all the more amazing for that. So, please give a round of applause to the Coalition Against Poverty, the Coalition for Social Justice, New England United for Justice, SEIU615, 1199SEIU, Jobs with Justice, and Neighbor to Neighbor for turning out their members in great numbers.
Let’s keep our eyes on the prize! We want this bill signed into law by Thanksgiving. We have the momentum to do this. We have a lot of work to do between now and then to achieve that goal. In the meantime, take the weekend off, enjoy this beautiful summer in New England and while you do that, peruse the significant media coverage our press event and hearing garnered.
Thank you!
Interested in working for passage of this bill? Contact Barbara Gutman, JALSA Office, 617-227-3000 or email bgutman.jalsa@gmail.com .
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Workers in Mass. call for paid sick days
14 July 2011
Story in Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and TV, radio and Connecticut news websites
- Boston Globe
- Boston Herald
- Worcester Telegram & Gazette
- 7News
- 5 ABC
- WBSM AM radio http://www.wbsm.com/article.asp?id=2237377
- Greenwichtime.com http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Workers-in-Mass-call-for-paid-sick-days-1466399.php
- CTPost.com http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Workers-in-Mass-call-for-paid-sick-days-1466399.php
Boston Globe
Lawmakers consider sick leave mandate
COLLEEN QUINN from STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
15 July 2011
22News: WWLP.com (SEE POST)
Bill proposes mandatory paid sick leave
Paid sick policy could save Mass. $22m
CHRISTINE LEE
14 July 2011
http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/politics/Bill-proposes-mandatory-paid-sick-leave
Standard-Times
Your View: Paid sick days directly affect school children
MARLENE POLLOCK
14 July 2011
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110714/OPINION/107140315/-1/NEWSMAP
Full Articles:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Workers in Mass. call for paid sick days
14 July 2011
Story in Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and TV, radio and Connecticut news websites
Advocates are calling for Massachusetts employers to offer paid sick leave.
Labor leaders and health care advocates supporting legislation for mandatory paid sick leave say nearly 1 million private sector employees do not have that benefit. The bill is the subject of a Statehouse hearing Thursday.
The proposal would require employers to provide up to seven paid sick days a year to employees who have worked the required hours. Employees would have to work full-time for 50 weeks to earn the full seven days.
Supporters say allowing workers to earn sick time will improve preventive care and prevent illnesses from spreading in the workplace.
Employers would not be required to give more paid time off than a worker earned, and could ask for a doctor’s note in some cases.
Boston Globe
Lawmakers consider sick leave mandate
COLEEN QUINN
15 July 2011
Paid sick days are a basic right and should be granted to workers by all employers, proponents of a proposed law said yesterday, as business groups argued that the mandate will hurt job growth during an anemic economic recovery.
Members of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development heard testimony from employee advocacy groups, their colleagues, and from workers who urged lawmakers to require all businesses, regardless of size, to offer full-time employees the ability to earn up to seven paid sick days per year. According to the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, more than 1 million people lack any sick pay benefits.
Proponents said those who do not receive benefits are primarily workers who can least afford to take time off without pay. Some advocates called it a women’s issue because mothers often must choose between caring for a sick child or going to work.
Last month, Connecticut passed a law requiring paid sick days. San Francisco passed a similar measure in 2007. Paid sick days are also the focus this week at an event in Washington, D.C., dubbed the 2011 National Summit on Paid Sick Days and Paid Family Leave.
While similar proposals have faltered in the past, Massachusetts lawmakers who support the law said it has a good chance of passing this time around, despite business opposition.
Representative Kay Khan, Democrat of Newton and one of the lead sponsors of the bill, said lawmakers who support the measure have met with business groups to understand their objections.
“It is carefully designed to also take into consideration the business community,’’ Khan said. “We would like to get them on board here and work with them.’’
But employers argue it will hurt job growth in the state and hurt the economic recovery.
“I believe in these very difficult economic times when local employers are still not growing due in part to the unaffordable costs of our first-in-the-nation health care mandate, the last thing we need is to further hurt small employers with more state government-imposed costs and red tape,’’ Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said in a statement.
Tim Sullivan, legislative and communications director for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, said business opposition to the proposed mandate was expected and asserted that businesses overstate the probable impact of the proposed policy on their bottom lines.
“I fully expect it to be a day of business karaoke,’’ Sullivan said before the hearing. “They will all get up and sing the same song over and over that this is going to be economic doomsday.’’
Sullivan described it as a women’s issue because many mothers work part time or in lower wage jobs that do not pay benefits.
Last year, Lilly Ledbetter, whose name has become synonymous with efforts to support equal pay for women, visited the State House to testify in favor of the bill, along with Victoria Kennedy.
Quoting the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who filed similar legislation shortly before he died, Sullivan said during the hearing, “No one should have to choose between the child they love and the job they need.’’
Representative Martha Walz, Democrat of Boston, said she learned at an early age the importance of paid sick days from her mother.
“When I was younger, my mother had to choose between the children she loved and the job she needed,’’ she said.
When Walz was in elementary school she would have to stay home alone sick, and she joked that she learned to master heating up Campbell’s soup.
“How sad it is that was the choice my mother was forced to make so she could support,’’ her family, Walz said. “It is a dilemma too many people in this country face.’’
22News: WWLP.com **INCLUDES VIDEO**
Bill proposes mandatory paid sick leave
Paid sick policy could save Mass. $22m
CHRISTINE LEE
14 July 2011
http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/politics/Bill-proposes-mandatory-paid-sick-leave
BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP) – In the spring, state Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Joanne Goldstein said paid sick leave is a workers’ “basic right.” Now lawmakers are responding with legislation that could make it law.
The Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development held a hearing Thursday for a pair of bills that legally require businesses in Massachusetts to provide paid sick leave to their employees.
“The workers who cannot afford to take a sick day, those are the ones who don’t have it, the ones who are working for minimum wage,” Sen. Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville), a lead sponsor of the bill.
“It’s about healthcare for all, it’s about social justice, equitable justice,” said Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera (D-Springfield), who serves as House chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.
In a research study conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), results show that the Commonwealth could save $22.7 million dollars in emergency room costs with a paid sick leave policy.
Rep. Kay Khan (D-Newton), another lead sponsor of the bill, adds that her legislation will encourage a healthier work environment.
“I know I encourage people to stay out of my office if they’re ill because we don’t want to infect the entire office,” said Rep. Khan.
But small business owners insist that financially speaking, they’re already at the end of their rope. They’re struggling with mandatory health insurance, the recession and other employee obligations they can’t afford.
“This paid sick leave bill is one more high cost and small businesses have nothing left to give to this,” said William Vernon, the Massachusetts director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
Small business advocates add that the government shouldn’t interfere with private business and “one-size” paid sick leave legislation, “doesn’t fit all”.
“A lot of small employers have part-time employees, seasonal employees,” said Jon Hurst, the president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. “A lot of those employees are not looking for benefits. They’re looking for higher pay per hour.
Opponents of the legislation express concern that sick benefits could be abused on a nice sunny day in Cape Cod, but supporters say it’s the workers who are being abused when they must choose between working while sick or taking a pay cut.
Mandatory paid sick laws are active in San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Washington D.C.
Standard-Times
Paid sick days directly affect school children
MARLENE POLLOCK
14 July 2011
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110714/OPINION/107140315/-1/NEWSMAP
As an elected School Committee member in New Bedford, I want to lend my support to the passage of the Act Establishing Paid Sick Days in Massachusetts. Currently, nearly 1 million Massachusetts residents do not have a single paid sick day. Eighty percent of these people are service industry workers, traditionally employed in lower paid jobs.
This impacts our school children directly. Many families, unable to take any time off for any reason and not lose a day’s pay, are forced to send their sick children to school. As a result, many of these children end up in the nurse’s office for most of the day, missing critical instruction time. They run the risk of being sicker longer because they either cannot have the proper rest and care to get better faster or are unable to see their doctor when their offices are open during the day. These families are forced to forgo preventive care and pay for emergency room visits, spending three times more for these visits than the cost for seeing their own doctor.
With sick children in school, more germs are spread to both students and staff. New Bedford Public Schools pays over a million dollars to hire substitutes to stand in for teachers who become ill from being exposed to sick children. This money could be much better spent on the many needs we have for instruction. We need to give families the means to care for their sick children, at the same time ensuring that our public school environment is healthier for all.
This bill would allow employees in Massachusetts to earn up to seven paid sick days per year based on how many hours they work. This is a very modest bill that simply allows employees paid time off to care for their families. Many major cities in the country have enacted this law, and Connecticut recently passed the first statewide paid sick leave law.
