Archive for the 'Debra Ness' Category

Sad Day for Floridians

Published on May 3, 2013 in Debra Ness and Staff. 0 Comments

Cross-posted from the National Partnership for Women & Families.

Floridians are the latest state residents to fall victim to an underhanded and harmful effort to undermine democracy across the country. Yesterday, members of the Florida House approved far-reaching legislation that will prohibit all localities from establishing paid sick days standards. The state Senate passed the measure last week. It now goes to Governor Scott for final approval.

This is truly a sad day for Florida, where a coalition of workers, businesses and advocates have been working to increase access to fundamental paid sick days protections. In September, despite the will of Orange County voters, the Florida business lobby and lawmakers under its influence kept citizens from being able to vote on an ordinance that would have guaranteed workers in the county the right to earn paid sick days. There has also been significant energy around and support for a paid sick days standard for workers in Miami-Dade county.

It is unacceptable that in a state like Florida, where residents clearly support common sense paid sick days standards, local lawmakers are being denied the ability to respond to their constituents by enacting the workplace standards they want and need – especially when proponents of the bill fail to offer state-level solutions. Yet this is part of a growing trend of so-called “preemption” bills designed to subvert local authorities’ ability to address local needs. At least six states have enacted similar measures, and they are being considered in at least four more.

We commend the Florida Coalition for Local Control for fighting against this damaging bill, and call on Governor Scott to veto it. In the meantime, the prevalence of state preemption bills make the case for a national standard like the Healthy Families Act even stronger. Working people across the country urgently need this common sense policy.

The Time is Now for Federal Action on Paid Sick Days

Published on April 24, 2013 in Debra Ness and Staff. 0 Comments

Cross-posted from MomsRising.

Susan, a single mother in Missouri, has a 10-year-old son who has pneumonia. She wants to stay home and care for him, but she cannot because her boss refuses to let her take the day off and she is terrified that, if she misses work, she will lose her job. She has no choice but to leave him home alone, breaking away from work as often as possible to call and check on him.

When Andrea’s seven-year-old daughter gets pinkeye, the Arizona mother is told to bring the sick child to work with her – at a school, no less. Andrea has to leave her daughter in a small room all day, checking on her regularly and worrying about the infection spreading to school staff and students.

Susan and Andrea are far from alone. They are just two of the nearly 40 million people in this country who cannot earn a single paid sick day. Millions more cannot use them to care for a sick child. For these mothers and fathers, having to choose between job and family is the norm. And it is simply unacceptable.

Fortunately, we have seen recent glimmers of hope that suggest a growing awareness of the plight of workers like Susan and Andrea, and the urgent need for public policies to help.

For the past several years, cities and states have been advancing paid sick days proposals. San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have had paid sick days laws in place since 2007 and 2008, respectively. In 2011, Connecticut became the first state to guarantee workers this basic right. And Seattle recently passed a paid sick days law, which took effect in 2012.

These laws paved the way for a flurry of activity that led last month to the approval of a paid sick days law in Portland, Oregon, City Council passage of a similar measure in Philadelphia for the second time (although Mayor Nutter vetoed it again), and an agreement in New York City that will lead to close to one million workers getting the right to earn paid sick days by the time the law is fully implemented in 2015.

These victories result from the tireless efforts of workers, businesses, advocates and lawmakers across the country. But the sad reality is that they won’t make life better for Susan or Andrea or for millions of workers like them who do not live in a city or state that gives workers the right to earn paid sick days. Their states, Missouri and Arizona, do not have paid sick days laws and, until recently, federal lawmakers have failed to even consider a national paid sick days standard.

That changed last week when members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the Workforce discussed H.R. 1406 – anti-worker legislation disguised as an effort to give workers more flexibility. The bill would cause real harm to workers; it would mean a pay cut without any guarantee of the time off workers need. But in the course of discussing this misguided and dangerous proposal, lawmakers acknowledged experiences like those of Susan and Andrea – and that the country needs policy solutions. And they had an unprecedented discussion of the Healthy Families Act, the federal paid sick days proposal.

As small a step as that was, it was a first for this Congress.  And it comes on the heels of local victories and significant momentum around and support for paid sick days policies. Lawmakers at the federal level need to seize this moment and pass the Healthy Families Act.

The time is now for federal action on paid sick days. Mothers, fathers, family members and workers across the country deserve it.

This post is by Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

The Flu Thrives Without Paid Sick Days

Published on January 14, 2013 in Debra Ness. 0 Comments

Cross-posted from the Huffington Post.

By now, we have all heard about or been affected by the influenza outbreak that is sweeping the country and taking a staggering toll. At least 44 states have been hit, thousands of hospitalizations and dozens of deaths have been reported so far, and some are already comparing this year’s outbreak to the H1N1 pandemic of 2009.

Story after story carries the common-sense recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that people who are feeling sick should stay home. The CDC includes this as a foremost component of flu treatment and prevention.

But what many don’t realize is that staying home when you’re sick is a privilege in this country — one that more than 40 percent of the private sector workforce does not have because no matter how long they hold their jobs or how hard they work, they can’t earn a single paid sick day. Millions more can’t earn any paid sick days to use to care for a sick child or family member.

As a result, workers are forced to forego the medical treatment and recovery time they need. Instead, because they have to pay the rent and put food on the table, they go to work sick and send ill children to school or daycare.

It is during public health crises like these that we are reminded of the grave consequences of our country’s failure to let workers earn paid sick days.

Take, for example, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. (Despite the many comparisons being made to H1N1 already, this outbreak is currently not at the same magnitude.) During that outbreak, an estimated 7 million people in the United States caught the flu from their co-workers. And according to the American Journal of Public Health, people without paid sick days were at greater risk of being exposed to the virus.

Part of what makes the lack of paid sick days such a public health issue is that it is the very workers who have the most frequent contact with the public — such as those working in food service, child care and personal care — who are the least likely to be able to earn paid sick time. The result is a recipe for increased contagion in our workplaces, communities and across the nation.

The good news is that this problem is solvable, as some lawmakers and voters in one state and a handful of cities across the country have demonstrated. They have listened to the people in their localities and followed the advice of public health organizations by establishing common sense paid sick days standards — with great success.

But a health crisis such as this one makes painfully clear that it is time for a federal standard. And lawmakers and employers are simply not doing all they can and should to prevent the spread of illness.

There is a bill, the Healthy Families Act, which has been introduced in the last several Congresses. It has been the subject of in-depth hearings, and it would put the nation on track to implement a national paid sick days standard similar to the ones working well in places that have put such standards in place. Its passage should be a high priority.

A national paid sick days standard would not stop the flu, but it would mean that more workers and their families could stay home to recover when they get it. That would slow the spread of contagion and prevent low-income families from facing impossible choices when the flu or other illnesses strike.

So, as we continue to see, hear and experience the effects of this epidemic, let’s remember that there is a simple, yet critical, step we haven’t taken. And let’s do something about it.

Debra L. Ness is the president of the National Partnership for Women & Families.