For more information, contact Jocelyn at 212-558-2276. You can read more about the work of the coalition on their website.

Using data collected from restaurant worker surveys in Chicago, Metro Detroit, New Orleans, Maine, and New York City, the national analysis shows that:

• 90% of surveyed restaurant workers had no health insurance through their employer.
• More than 89% reported having no paid sick days and 78% had no paid vacation time.
• Nearly 67% worked while sick.

Combined with ongoing racial disparities in wages and job promotions, the failure to provide health insurance, paid sick days, and other time off means that many of the most economically vulnerable restaurant workers are struggling to meet the needs of their families. The reports also show that consumer health is being traded away in favor of increased profit.

On February 18, the Wisconsin State Court of Appeals sent the legal challenge to Milwaukee’s paid sick days ordinance up to the State Supreme Court. The move means continued delay in implementation of the ordinance—approved by nearly 70% of City of Milwaukee voters in a November 2008 referendum vote.

Immediately after voters’ approval of the referendum, the city’s main business lobby, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), requested a temporary injunction against implementation. The Milwaukee County Circuit Court later rejected most of the MMAC’s arguments but struck down the ordinance on the judge’s opinion that a provision for time off for safety needs related to domestic violence was outside the common understanding of “sick leave.”  9to5, the lead organization in the grassroots coalition that put the ordinance on the ballot, has led the legal appeal of this ruling as an intervenor in the case.

This action by the Court of Appeals asks the State Supreme Court to rule on whether the language on the November 2008 ballot met the statutory requirement that it be a “concise statement of [the ordinance’s] nature.” 9to5 says that the ballot language met the requirement and that voters had access to the full text of the ordinance during the petition signing process and at all polling locations. The MMAC insists that the ballot language needed to include a list of numerous provisions of the ordinance.

Because state law allows Milwaukee’s Common Council to vote to repeal an ordinance passed by referendum two years after the vote, the appeals court is also asking the higher court to rule on whether that 2-year clock has been running while the ordinance has been held up in court.

You can read 9to5’s press release on the court’s action at the 9to5 website.

• Newborn family leave has significant positive effects on the health of young children, rates of breastfeeding, and fathers’ involvement with their babies.
• The most important determinants of whether parents take leave are if the leave is paid or job-protected.
• Lower income workers and part-time workers are less likely to have access to either paid or unpaid leave.
• Businesses report no major problems in complying with the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and effects on business appear to be modest.  Some studies suggest that leave policies can benefit companies through increased employee retention and job satisfaction.

You can read the report at the Packard Foundation website.

Time to Care NY on Twitter

New Yorkers Deserve Paid Sick Days on Facebook

“A handful of States have enacted policies to offer paid family leave, but more States should have the chance,” notes an Office of Management and Budget fact sheet on how the proposed budget will support middle-class families. “The Budget establishes a $50 million State Paid Leave Fund within the Department of Labor that will provide competitive grants to help States that choose to launch paid-leave programs to cover their start-up costs.  The Budget also provides resources to allow the Department of Labor to explore ways to improve the collection of data related to intersection of work and family responsibilities.”

“While there’s certainly plenty of employers out there who recognize the value of good work-life policies,” she said, “many people in this country just aren’t as fortunate to work with those employers. And with the job market the way it is right now, many folks can’t afford to be picky… And many don’t have access, as a result, to good family leave policies or any kind of flexibility in the workplace at all….

[T]oday roughly 40 percent of private-sector employees work at companies that don’t offer a single day of paid sick leave. Not a single day. And I think that reflects a larger problem, that for too long we as a society have viewed policies that help people balance work and family as somehow a special benefit maybe to women who shoulder that, rather than an essential part of a workplace that can benefit everyone in the workplace.

To this day there’s still the perception that workers who need time off to care for a sick parent, or who want a more flexible schedule so they can go to the potluck or the play or the parent-teacher conference, are somehow less committed or less desirable. There’s this idea that workplaces that accommodate these needs are destined to be less profitable, less productive somehow.

But we now know that that’s just simply not the case. There’s a lot of evidence out there from companies who’ve implemented really innovative processes to help families. We now know that these kind of policies can actually make employees more productive…. Because instead of spending all day at work worrying about what’s happening at home, they have the support that they need to concentrate on their jobs. And it makes a huge difference in terms of productivity. Just mental health comfort and stability helps workers be better. We know that.

And that’s why we need to change the way we look at these issues so that our workplaces can catch up to the realities of our lives. It’s time we viewed family-friendly policies as not just niceties for women but as necessities for every single working American — men and women — because more and more men are shouldering that same kind of burden. And that’s good, but that’s new.

Staying home to care for a sick child or taking an elderly parent to a doctor’s appointment shouldn’t mean risking one’s job. That shouldn’t be the tradeoff. People shouldn’t have to choose between taking the time they need after giving birth, for example, or adopting a child, and keeping that job that they need to support the child they just had. That shouldn’t be the choice.

Things like paid family leave and sick days and affordable childcare should be the norm, not the exception. That’s why we think it’s important to highlight companies that are embracing these policies, ones that are experimenting with things like flex time and telecommuting and focusing on performance and output rather than face time. That’s why the President and Secretary Solis have spoken out in favor of the Healthy Families Act, which would let millions more working Americans earn up to seven days a year of paid sick time to care for themselves and their families. That would be innovative and new. But we are happy that we have a President and a Secretary of the Department of Labor who had the vision and the foresight to see that this now needs to happen.

But the administration also knows that we essentially have to put our money where our mouths are, so the administration is working to practice what we preach and make the federal government a model of what we’re asking others to do. From expanding telework options to providing emergency childcare and affordable day care, we need to be implementing all of those ideas throughout the federal government….

[T]here’s a lot of work to do — as we all know, as the President has said. He said it before he took the oath of office — change is important, change is hard, and change takes time….But as one of Secretary Solis’s predecessors, President Roosevelt’s Labor Secretary Frances Perkins once pointed out that most of our problems — and this is a quote — “have been met and solved either partially or as a whole by experiment based on common sense and carried out with courage.”

That’s what we need today as well. …And all of us, in both government and the private sector, will need to come up with new ideas, try out new approaches, and rely on our courage and our common sense to guide us along the way. …I am confident that we will meet these challenges.”

January 11, 2009

Contact:

Ellen Bravo, Executive Director, 414-916-7078

Washington, DC: Today Family Values at Work – a network of 14 state coalitions that supports strong health and family policies in the workplace – called on federal lawmakers to observe “National Influenza Vaccination Week,” January 10-16, by supporting a critical public health measure to slow the spread of flu: paid sick days.

“As we encourage people to get flu shots, we must remember that parents sometimes need time off to keep themselves and their families healthy – without fear of losing their job or income,” said Ellen Bravo, Executive Director of Family Values at Work. “Whether it’s taking the time to get a vaccine, or staying home to care for a sick child – meaningful inoculation means giving people the tools to be healthy. Paid sick days are a reasonable, modest protection.”

“When workers go to work sick, their co-workers pay a price – by getting sick themselves,” said Bravo. “Employers pay a price too: their workers aren’t as productive as normal, and more will miss work as the flu spreads. Letting sick workers stay home will make all workers healthier.”

As Denver business owner Terri Monley put it, “People get sick. They deserve the time to get better…. Doing things this way is good for our employees. It’s good for our business. And it’s good for our country…. The last thing [families] should have to worry about is balancing their top two demands: their responsibilities at home and their responsibilities at work.”

Indeed, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has stated on its official flu.gov website that “Employers should encourage employees that are ill with pandemic influenza or are exposed to ill family members to stay home and should consider flexible leave policies for their employees in these circumstances.”

“Public health officials have repeatedly cautioned that the best way to stop the spread of H1N1 is for workers to stay home if they are sick and for parents to keep children who are sick home from school. To do that, they need the protection and encouragement that comes with paid sick days,” said Bravo.

The Healthy Families Act, Introduced by Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) in the House of Representatives last May, would require businesses with 15 or more employees to provide up to seven days (56 hours) of paid sick leave per year.

Paid sick days are just one of the modest, minimum standards Family Values at Work urges federal officials to enact to ensure workers the flexibility to meet their family needs. To read more about important family-friendly workplace standards, including a guaranteed minimum number of paid sick days, view the in-depth report by Family Values at Work, “Family Values @ Work: It’s About Time,” which documents the consequences on workers, families, businesses and the nation when family values end at the workplace door – and the benefits of new standards like paid sick days, that bring institutions in sync with the realities of today’s families.

“You shouldn’t have to risk your job to take care of your family, and you shouldn’t have to put your family at risk just to do your job,” said Bravo.

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