APALA Members Join in Solidarity with Restaurant Workers
Katrina Dizon, president of Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA)-DC, sends us this.
APALA members joined a packed room at Eatonville Restaurant yesterday as the Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC-United) released its “Diners’ Guide 2012,” a booklet rating 150 of the most popular restaurants in the United States on a variety of workplace standards. Criteria include the restaurant’s high-road practices, the extent workers are tipped and non-tipped wages and access to paid sick leave and advancement opportunities.
The event was hosted by ROC-DC and brought together a panel of industry workers, high-road employers and consumers to talk about the importance of being an informed diner and supporting establishments that prioritize workers’ rights. ROC-DC leaders also spoke briefly about their new campaign against a well-known Washington, D.C., fine dining restaurant, Capital Grille, for various discrimination and wage theft allegations brought to their attention by former servers and current staff.
Paid Sick Leave Now Law in Conn.; Drives Under Way in Denver, Seattle
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Connecticut has become the first state in the nation to have a law requiring employers to provide paid sick days, and efforts to pass similar legislation are under way in several cities and states including Denver, Seattle, New York City, Massachusetts and Georgia. Only two cities in the nation, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have paid sick leave laws on the books.
In Denver, the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America is teaming up with a coalition of family and community groups to build support for a paid sick days ballot initiative in this fall’s election. Supporters this week turned in 12,636 signatures—more than three times the required number—on petitions to put the measure on the ballot.
Meanwhile in Seattle, the City Council is considering a bill that would require businesses to provide workers in Seattle up to five, seven or nine days of paid sick leave a year, depending on the size of business and number of work hours accrued. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Makini Howell, who runs the small vegan eateries Hillside Quickie and Plum Bistro with some 30 employees, said in a hearing on the bill that she supports the legislation because she doesn’t want her employees handling food while sick.
All of us get sick. I can’t afford losing good employees. And I don’t want to serve H1N1 with your fries…If we can do it big businesses can as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Philadelphia Paid Sick Leave Bill Vetoed
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D) last night vetoed a paid sick leave bill passed by the City Council that would have made Philadelphia the third city in the nation guaranteeing workers paid sick leave. Says AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurers Liz Shuler:
It’s a shame the mayor ignored what the majority of Philadelphians say is the right thing to do for working families. When workers in the city get sick, they are still faced with the awful choice of their health or their paycheck. The mayor could have changed that.
Says Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO President Patrick J. Eiding:
The ability to take a day off when you or your family member is sick is a public health issue as well as a worker rights issue. We’re disappointed in the mayor’s veto and will continue to fight for paid sick days and all legislation that helps workers. Read the rest of this entry »
Walker Strikes Again: Signs Repeal of Milwaukee Paid Sick Days Law
Paying back his corporate donors and allies and sticking it to working families once again, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed a bill that overturns Milwaukee’s paid sick leave law.
The law was passed with a 70 percent vote in 2008 and Milwaukee corporate interests soon filed suit against it, but in late March, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld the law. Today, Walker went to the headquarters of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), the business group that tried to block the law, and signed the bill that preempts all Wisconsin communities from approving ordinances requiring paid sick days.
The bill was passed at the urging of the MMAC by the Republican-controlled legislature and specifically designed to block the Milwaukee law. Dana Schultz, lead organizer for 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, says Walker’s action is “an assault on democracy, local control, and working families.”
Voters can see that the governor and state legislature are more committed to paying back their corporate donors than creating good jobs for Wisconsin. Read the rest of this entry »
Top Earners Get Sick Leave, Not So Much at Bottom of Wage Scale
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Workers at the top of the wage scale are more than four times more likely to have paid sick days than workers toiling near the bottom wage scale, says a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) Economic Snapshot.
Just 19 percent of low-wage workers have paid sick days, compared with 86 percent of high-wage workers. These low-income workers are the ones who can least afford to lose pay when they are sick. Overall one in four workers have no paid sick days and when they become ill, are forced to go to work sick, or stay home without pay and risk losing their job.
Many of those low-wage workers are also in occupations most likely to have regular contact with the public—food service and preparation, and personal care and service—according to a study earlier this year from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). And that, says Dr. Robert Drago, research director for IWPR, “raises serious public health concerns.”
The fewer the number of workers who are able to stay home when sick, the more likely it is that diseases will spread, increasing health care costs and causing needless economic losses. We saw this during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic when workers without paid sick days were more likely to go to work while infected with H1N1.
Click here for more from IWPR.
Recent surveys show three-quarters of Americans say paid sick leave should be a “basic workers’ right” and Congress should pass legislation that guarantees workers paid sick leave. More than 160 countries provide paid sick leave, but not the United States.
Wisconsin Court Upholds Milwaukee Paid Sick Leave Law
More than two years after Milwaukee voters overwhelmingly passed a paid sick leave city ordinance, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals today upheld the law and lifted an injunction an employer’s group was granted in June 2009.
But Republican state legislators are backing a bill that would prevent Wisconsin cities and towns from establishing their own paid sick leave laws. Dana Schultz, lead organizer for 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, says:
Milwaukeeans have made their decision on paid sick days, and now the courts have upheld their vote. The State Legislature should not be trying to rob voters in Milwaukee and cities across the state of their basic right to local decision-making on sick days or any other laws….It’s time for the State Legislature to stop its attacks on hard-working families and get to work on policies that will help create jobs and grow our economy.
Lack of Paid Sick Leave Is Family and Public Health Concern
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More than 44 million private-sector workers in the United States—42 percent of the private-sector workforce—don’t have paid sick days they can use to recover from a common illness like the flu, according to new research by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR).
The new analysis reveals that more workers lack paid sick days than government reports show because it includes 4.2 million workers who have not been on the job long enough to be eligible for paid sick days.
Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families (NPWF), calls the new data a “jarring reminder that workplace policies in this country are grossly inadequate.”
It should be a compelling call to action for lawmakers at the local, state and federal levels, with unemployment high, jobs scarce and more working families relying on one income instead of two, too many workers forced to sacrifice their health or their financial security when illness strikes or a family emergency occurs.
One-Stop Resource for Paid Sick Days
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D.C. Carrotmob for Paid Sick Days from CLASP on Vimeo. |
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More than two of every five private-sector workers do not receive any paid sick days. But having time off if you’re sick makes so much common sense that 95 percent of the public thinks it is unacceptable for employers to not provide paid sick leave. A full 60 percent think it is illegal not to provide sick leave. Lower-paid workers are especially vulnerable: Three of every four low-wage workers have no paid sick leave.
With the help of local advocates across the country, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), an advocacy group for low-income people, has launched a new a one-stop-shop website for information on businesses and paid sick days. On the site, which you can visit here, you will find:
- Quotes from business owners about why paid sick days work for business.
- News stories about business and paid sick days.
- Resources to help make the case for paid sick days to businesses.
- A list of more than 100 businesses nationwide that support paid sick days.
Public Supports Paid Sick Leave
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Three-quarters of Americans say paid sick leave should be a “basic workers’ right” and Congress should pass legislation that guarantees workers paid sick leave, according to a new survey by the Public Welfare Foundation (PWF).
PWF President Deborah Leff says the overwhelming support for paid sick leave legislation shows
that a majority of people in every racial group and every income level, every age group, every part of the country, both political parties see paid sick days as a basic worker right.
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.
