Paid Sick Days Bill Teed Up; Groups Start Dialogue on Flexibility

Workforce Management
May 15, 2009

Legislation that would ensure paid sick leave for American workers has been modified because of employer concerns about the way that time off was provided in a previous version of the bill, according to Capitol Hill staff and advocates.
Under the measure, which will be introduced within days, employees would earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours they work up to a total of 56 hours—or seven days—annually, said Karen Minatelli, director of work and family programs at the National Partnership for Women and Families.
Minatelli spoke at a Capitol Hill event Thursday, May 14, a few days in advance of the expected introduction of the measure, the Healthy Families Act.
The advent of the bill is part of a flurry of recent Washington activity on flexible work. On May 7, the Society for Human Resource Management issued a set of workplace leave principles that it hopes will form alternatives to bills like the paid sick leave measure.
On Wednesday, May 13, a group called Workplace Flexibility 2010 released a framework to guide the development of flexible work policy.
The version of the paid sick leave bill that failed to win approval in the previous Congress required companies with 15 or more employees to offer seven paid sick days.
Employers said that provision was confusing and recommended an accrual process, according to a Senate labor committee aide who was not authorized to speak on the record.
The bill also would allow time off to employees who are victims of domestic violence and would require medical certification for more than three days off in a row.
But the business community continues to have reservations about the upcoming bill, including how it defines full-time employees and how it would affect paid time off.
The labor committee aide said that if a company’s PTO plan could be used for the same purposes as the sick day legislation and under the same circumstances, it would put the company in compliance.

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