SEARCH
Lack of Paid Sick Leave Sped Swine Flu Spread
In 2009, nearly 26 million workers were likely infected with the H1N1 (swine flu) virus. The spread of the virus may have been aided by lack of paid sick leave, which prompted more than 8 million of those workers to take no time off from work, according to a new study.
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) study, “Sick at Work: Infected Employees in the Workplace During the H1N1 Pandemic,” used data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It found that workers in industries with no or poorly paid sick day coverage were the most likely to go to work while sick.
Nearly half of all private-sector workers—and 76 percent of low-income workers—have no paid sick leave. Many low-wage workers have jobs that require direct contact with the public, such as in the food service, hospitality and health care industries and in schools.
Robert Drago, Ph.D., professor of Labor Studies and Women’s Studies at Pennsylvania State University and co-author of the study, says:
Work attendance by infected employees is a public health issue due to contagion. Employees who attended work while infected with H1N1 are estimated to have caused the infection of as many as 7 million co-workers.
Last year, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced the Healthy Families Act (H.R. 2460 and S. 1152), which would require businesses with more than 15 employees to provide workers with up to seven paid sick days a year to care for themselves or a sick child or spouse.
During a House hearing on the bill, Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said paid sick leave benefits employers, workers and their families as well as customers and the general public.
Sick workers are not productive ones and by spreading disease in the workplace risk the overall productivity of the business. By providing paid leave for sick workers, worker safety and business productivity can both be enhanced—a win-win for employers.
While we want to encourage workers to make healthy and rational decisions, when they are faced with the choice of staying home sick without pay or going into work sick so they can put food on the table and pay their mortgage, many workers choose to go to work and “tough it out,” putting their co-workers and their customers at risk.
Click here to read the entire report from IWPR.
Don’t forget to check out the AFL-CIO’s pandemic flu site, which includes vital resources for health care workers, firefighters, educators and more. And for more information, visit www.flu.gov.
 |
Become a Fan on Facebook |  |
Follow Us on Twitter |  |
Subscribe to YouTube |  |
Subscribe to Blog RSS | ||||
2 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Paid Sick leave
I asked my boss for a day off, because my child was sick.
I said make it a sick day, vacation, or you can pick.
She said hire a nurse or get some one else to stay!
Come to work right now or you will get no pay!
I weighed the choice she gave me, it was oh so very clear,
My darling baby daughter needed her mother to be near.
So I stayed home after we went to see the Doc.
Loosing one days pay would only put me in hock.
To my surprise, on my return she was now going to write me up!
I was now to be on attendance control and better not screw up.
The next absence, a suspension and a couple of days without pay;
For taking care of my baby daughter this is just not fair I say.
Not any paid time off for the family that they cannot take away.
No vacation, Paid time off or any time; it is just not right I say.
No, No, says the Boss our sick leave is only just for you.
We won’t pay you and you can’t use your vacation too.
You better be here every day; we have work for you to do,
Or with our attendance control we’ll just get rid of you.
The ideal employee is one who is Single By Choice.
Company employees should sing in one single voice.
.
We did not hire your Family, not mom, dad, husband or wife.
No Family commitments! Now that’s for all your working life.
If you get sick or have a family don’t bother to apply.
You must be here each and every day until your fired or die!
There ought to be a law to stop policies like that!
I went to see the union and to have a little chat!
Paid Sick leave is in the congress but I fear it will be to late;
Nor will you get any help from republicans in legislatures in your states.
Working families, we need to lobby congress and the legislatures too.
We need a law so are jobs are protected when our children gets the flu.
Don’t loose heart we fought back and we did win at the ballot box.
We got a new sick leave law in San Francisco, the city that rocks.
We won in San Francisco you can win in your city too.
We can win in the states; but it will take work to win there too.
In the House and in the Senate the bills have been put in..
Stick together and fight for our families and together we will win.
By David G. Hurlburt, CWA Local 9410 Steward
One Sick Kin Away From Being Fired
It is hard for a family to make both ends meet,
Both of us working so we are not on the street.
Minimum wage workers need every single dime;
They also need some emergency kin care time.
We work hard, and at night and we’re so tired,
Just one sick child away from being fired.
Why can’t we use sick leave to care for our kin,
When the Bosses fires us for that is a just a sin.
Not any time off, with pay, for short time family care;
When the roll is called up yonder will these managers be there?
We work hard and at night and we’re so tired.
Just one sick spouse away from being fired.
Companies protect and defend at all costs their mighty corporate right;s
So when you take time off for your family, be prepared to join the fights.
Working families, we need to lobby congress and the legislatures too.
We need a law so are jobs are protected when our child gets the flu..
We work hard and at night and we’re so tired,
Just one sick parent away from being fired.
Providing time for families doesn’t cost it will pay.
It reduces turnover because more employees stay.
It, increases loyalty, dedication and it is caring and kind.
A benefit employees value and it’s one that’s hard to find.
We work hard and at night and we’re so tired.
Just one sick self away from being fired.
Too many times we’re fired and end up in the street.
Loss of jobs or pay and our bills we can’t meet.
Bankruptcy from medical bills or the loss of a job,
We loose heart and hope and our kids learn to rob
You can pay to build families or tear them apart.
The dollars spent on sick leave are just a start;
Childcare, after school programs to care for our kids
And medical care for every one even those on the skids.
If you don’t do these things you will still pay the price.
In court costs and prisons and that is not very nice.
A nations economy must serve all the people in the land;
Not greed or the wealthy, government must take a stand.
The social safety net is not just for the poor,
It protects us all from the thief at our door.
• SICK PAY TODAY H.R. 2460 and S. 1152)
I AM SICK AND TIRED
OF BEING SICK THEN FIRED
NO HEALTH CARE AND NO PAY
WELFARE IS STARTED THIS WAY
MY SICKNESS IS PASSED BECAUSE I AM NOT HOME IN BED
TO MY CO-WORKERS AND CUSTOMERS ILLNESS IS SPREAD
WHEN I GET SICK I STILL COUGH AND MY HEAD WILL THROB
BUT I COME TO WORK FOR THE PAY AND TO KEEP THE JOB
IF I DO NOT COME IN THEN I GET NO PAY
I GIVE MY ILLNESS TO OTHERS THIS WAY
MY HEALTH AND YOURS ARE BEING EFFECTED
TO PROTECT US ALL IS WHY YOU WERE ELECTED
AS PARENTS WE KNOW THAT OUR CHILDREN GET SICK TOO.
WE STAY HOME TO CARE FOR THEM WHAT ELSE SHOULD WE DO
LOSS OF PAY FOR THE DAY THEN OUR JOBS ON THE LINE
PLEASE PASS THIS BILL I know the president will SIGN
THERE ARE GOOD EMPLOYERS WHO PAY FOR SICK DAYS
BAD COMPANIES TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE GOOD GUYS THIS WAY
GOOD EMPLOYERS SUFFER MORE EMPLOYEES OFF THE JOB
IT IS UNFAIR COMPETITION THE GOOD GUYS GET ROBBED
NOT IF BUT WHEN THE PANDEMIC ARRIVES IN THE UNITED STATES
PEOPLE COMMING TO WORK OR SCHOOL WILL ONLY AGGRIVATE.
A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS AND THAT MAKES MORE PEOPLE ILL
PENNY WISE AND FOOLISH WE NEED A CURE H.R. 2460 and S. 1152) IS THE PILL
CONGRESS YOU MUST PASS AND I KNOW THE PRESIDENT WILL SIGN
AND THAT IS WHY WE ARE ALL WALKING THIS PICKET LINE
WE COULD ALL COME TO THE CAPITOL WHEN WE ALL GET SICK
STROLL THE HALLS AND GIVE YOU THE DISEASE, YOUR CHOICE, YOU PICK.
David Hurlburt
CWA local 9410
By David G. Hurlburt CWA local 9410
The Labor’s Project for Working Families is working on these issues. They need supporters is your union one of their supporters? http://www.working-families.org/
As the poems tell these issues are making progress in the cities, states and very little at the Federal level; but good news the new budget has funds for states to startup paid Family Leave.
The Swine Flu epidemic was and still is a hoax.