On Demand
Paid Sick Leave
Monday, October 26, 2009
New York City Council member Gail Brewer (D-Upper West Side) introduces a bill that would ensure workers at least five days of paid sick leave per year.
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you mean everyone doesn't already have this benfit? Guess I am very lucky
How would this work for servers in restaurants?
Thank you.
Oh and it started right away..should be a viewed as a perk/benefit, not a right!
Paid sick leave is O.K., but referring to the article in yesterdays Asbury Park Press, how do you deal with sick days that can be cashed in when one retires? Sick days should be used when one is sick, not as an added golden parachute.
Work (at least in NY) is so competitive anyway, that guaranteed sick leave doesn't mean people are going to use it. There's a stigma attached to taking off. That's a big obstacle. Probably bigger than whether people have the time off or not.
Would this include workers considered temps? I am a waiter/bartender at a well known banquet location on Wall St. We often serve guests such as Mayor Bloomberg etc. Wouldn't they like to know that the people handling their food aren't sick?
What about freelancers? The economy, especially in NY and in certain fields, is moving towards having more independent workers. We're constantly getting the short end of the stick in everything from health insurance and other benefits to paying much more in social security taxes. How does sick time fit into this equation, and how do we change policy to accommodate the changing workforce?
What about freelancers? The economy, especially in NY and in certain fields, is moving towards having more independent workers. We're constantly getting the short end of the stick in everything from health insurance and other benefits to paying much more in social security taxes. How does sick time fit into this equation, and how do we change policy to accommodate the changing workforce?
I think this is a wonderful bill. I guess Debra, the previous caller, doesn't mind sick workers in restaurants hacking into her food when they are sick.
If restaurant workers had paid sick leave, I'd go to restaurants more often. I get sick more often when eating restaurant meals than when eating at home. I think this is partly because sick people who can't afford to take time off are handling my food in the restaurant. This makes me pack my lunch. The productivity costs to the city as a whole from unnecessarily sickened restaurant customers is enormous. If restaurants could economically empower sick employees to stay home and get well, there'd be more healthy people to eat in their restaurants without nervousness.
What don’t we just have slavery, that will solve all labor problems.
In light of the small business skeptics, I'm surprised that so many owners are still NOT pushing for universal health care.
Deborah. Wake up. You live in a fantasy world. Your use of the term worker indicates where you stand. Workers are people, employees, mothers, fathers.
Hopefully this bill goes through and starts a trend...of actually treating people who have jobs and work hard like - well, people...
To the small business owner caller who recently gave an employee 3 weeks off for appendicitis--you need a proper HR policy for sick leave, including provision of short term disability and optional long term disability to protect yourself and your workers. Any business owner who says "we were nice, we paid him for the whole three weeks he was out sick" needs to review HR policies--even if you only have a handful of employees.
the truth in bkny --
Apparently you don't know anyone who works in a restaurant. I have extensive experience in this business and I can tell you I NEVER worked in a restaurant that gave most of the employees sick days, kitchen or floor staff. I got them -- once -- when I was the general manager of two restaurants and it was like pulling teeth.
If you are a server and miss more than two shifts in a row because you were sick, most places will can you. Period. Even if it was serious.
The caller Alexis was right on the money stating that her family members who are wiaters can't just "negotiate" for sick time. My husband is a waiter in a well-loved restaurant that does treat its employees well (it says something there are some guys who have been there waiting tables for over 20 years) but even still, there is no paid sick leave. He can't just "negoatiate" for this benefit, or "find another industry" as one of the skeptics suggested. I may be biased, but I can tell you he's an extremely hard-working immigrant, trying to start a small business, and is certainly deserving of some basic perqs...
Hi,
In addition, I would like to say my mom comments constantly "How the Girls" in work are passing Colds or Flu's back & forth to each other. Hello...this is not good for the customers either.
The ironic crazy thing is, even if my mom did get paid for a sick day, she is only paid approx $3 per hour (plus tips which obviously would not be factored in for the day lost) So, for an 8 hour day, she would be paid approx. $24 minus taxes!!!! On top of the fact, that she is not offerred HEALTH INSURANCE like most restaurant employees. So if she needed to go to the doctor...what an expensive day it would be. Now I am here to help my mom in anyway possible, she knows this. However, she does not want to lose her job so this always encourages her to go to work sick.
No one wants people to work when they are sick or if they have a sick child, not to be able to keep them home from school and care for them. However, with all due respect, the costs to the businesses under the mandates of this bill are far more than quoted in this conversation.
Small businesses with less than 10 employees will be forced to give 5 paid sick days and "large businesses" of 11 employees or more, 9 paid sick days. Who has calculated that a company with 10 employees is deemed a "small business" and one with 11 employees, a "large business?"
And how do we know that an employee in a business with 10 employees will be sick only 5 days a year while a person in the company with 11 employees will be sick 9 days?
Individual businesses are currently making actual calculations based on real payroll and many small businesses are finding the costs to the business will be, minimally, $30,000 a year. These costs will have to be borne somehow and businesses will either curtail hiring, cutback their workforce or decrease other benefits. Most businesses cannot increase the cost of their goods or services to their customers, especially in this economic climate.
In addition, it is certainly not an incentive to new business attraction when coupled with all of the other fees and mandates including the recent addition of the MTA payroll tax. The state of NY is already ranked 49th in business friendliness. The passage of this bill in our city could push us to last place in the entire country that a company would want to set up shop!
Also, in San Francisco, the chamber is expressing concerns regarding the passage of this similar mandated bill in their city and are not saying there is no effect. They are saying that at this time they don't have statistics to share.
The passage of this bill could lead to harming the very employees that it is hoping to protect by jeopardizing the health of our citys' businesses.
Who determined that companies with 11 or more employees is a "large" business? That is ridiculous - FMLA defines small business as under 50 employees and even that is too low!
Why is this a NYC issue rather than a NYS issue?
Just another nail in the coffin of small business in NYC.
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