Yesterday we collected a story from retired teacher and legislator, Jackie Norton. Click here to check it out.

Philadelphia just passed paid sick days! Hooray!  Last week Connecticut became the first state to pass paid sick days, and yesterday Philadelphia became the fourth city. What a month for workers! Read below for a blog post from family values at work about the vote and the future victories!

Anyone who’s been to Philly knows about Philly cheesesteaks. When you buy one, you’ll be asked whether you want it with or without onions.

In the past several years, the Coalition for Healthy Families and Workplaces, a member group of Family Values @ Work, has asked a more important question:  whether the person serving you is working with or without paid sick days.

Thanks to a massive grassroots effort in that city by the Coalition — now 106 organizations led by PathwaysPA — the answer for most workers will soon be “with!” Through an impressive combination of grassroots support, public rallies, op eds and personal appeals to Council members by constituents, the Coalition helped make the case. Today the Council voted by one vote to turn the modest paid sick days bill into law.

Workers in firms of more than 10 employees will be able to earn 7 paid sick days a year to recover from illness, access preventive care or look after a sick child or family member.  Those in firms with 5 to 10 workers will earn up to 4 days.

The news from Philadelphia comes less than two weeks after the Connecticut state legislature voted for the first-ever statewide paid sick days law. Several other cities and states across the country are actively considering similar legislation.

Next week, Seattle City Council plans to introduce a paid sick days bill which could come to a vote in August..  A broad coalition in Denver is collecting signatures for a ballot initiative in November, and in New York City, 35 City Council members are sponsoring a paid sick days law.  A hearing is scheduled in Massachusetts in July. In Georgia, a bi-partisan group of state legislators led by five Republicans is supporting a bill that would ensure workers could use sick time to care for their children and loved ones.

“We applaud Phildelphia’s City Council members for standing on the side of workers, families and the economy,” said Ellen Bravo, Executive Director of Family Values @ Work. “Coalitions of working families are fighting for such legislation across the country so that taking care of yourself or a loved one will not cost anyone a paycheck or a job. The wave of votes this year demonstrates the strong public support for paid sick days – a small step with enormous impact on public health and on job preservation.”

“Philadelphians from all walks of life came together to fight for paid sick days for everyone in our city,” said Marianne Bellesorte, director of the Coalition for Healthy Families and Workplaces in Philadelphia and Senior Director of Policy at PathWays PA. “This is a common sense measure to preserve public health and promote economic security.”

Polling in cities and states across the country shows overwhelming support for paid sick days.  Polling in Connecticut released this week shows that 72 percent of voters, including 50 percent of Republican voters, support the newly passed measure.  The strong showing of bipartisan support among voters for paid sick days is not unusual – survey after survey across the country has shown voters of both parties want this modest reform that promotes a healthier workforce and strengthens the economy.

Coalitions from other states in the Family Values @ Work consortium working for paid sick days legislation are celebrating the win for working families in Philadelphia.

“The passage of paid sick days in Philadelphia is a great success for the city and for the entire nation. Denver is excited to follow in Philadelphia and Connecticut’s footsteps and provide paid sick days for all workers so that no one has to lose pay or risk losing a job because they have to care for themselves or their family,” said Erin Bennett, Executive Director of Denver 9to5 and director of the Colorado Paid Sick Days Coalition.

“The Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce includes more than 70 community, labor and faith organizations and local businesses. Together, we’ve developed a proposal that offers a responsible and flexible way to ensure everyone has paid sick days — helping to keep people healthy, prevent the spread of disease, and promote more productive workplaces. We’re excited with this win and to see so much enthusiasm about paid sick days, both here in Seattle and across the country!” said Marilyn Watkins, director of the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce and Policy Director of the Economic Opportunity Institute.

“Across the country, working people and elected officials understand that paid sick days is a policy that’s good for the public health, good for families and good for the economy.  It’s time for New York City to join the movement to ensure working families do not have to choose between their financial security and their health or the health of their families,” said Donna Dolan, Chair of the New York State Paid Leave Coalition, a growing coalition of more than 400 community organizations, labor unions and businesses including school nurses, public health groups, restaurant workers and HIV-AIDS service providers.

For more stories from workers and business leaders, visit: http://familyvaluesatwork.org/blog/2011/06/03/workers-and-business-owners-speak-out-for-paid-sick-days/ .

The Connecticut State Senate has approved the paid sick days bill, SB 913 with a vote of 18 to 17. The House is expected to vote next week. Governor Dan Malloy, elected in part for his support for the bill, has been urging its passage and will sign it.

Read the whole piece here.

Here’s the lesson from the recent political fight in Milwaukee: when democracy decides, paid sick days and working people win. A second lesson: when corporate lobbyists interfere in the democratic process, low-wage workers often lose.

The fight began when, in early 2008, an alliance of nearly 50 organizations, spearheaded by the Milwaukee chapter of 9to5, National Association of Working Women, organized a successful local ballot campaign to guarantee the right of all workers in the city to earn paid sick leave.

Enthusiasm for the campaign mounted as members of the diverse coalition gathered signatures. In immigrant communities, labor halls, child care centers, job sites, congregations, and community festivals, activists distributed materials and signed up supporters. They needed 26,500 signatures—and turned in 42,000.

Read the whole piece here in Spotlight on Poverty

The lack of paid sick days poses a risk to public health. Many of the workers without paid sick days are in food service and health care jobs where illness can be spread to those they work with and serve. At no time was this clearer than during the H1N1 epidemic, when 8 million Americans went to work with the flu – in turn infecting another 7 million people with the virus.

But the lack of paid sick days is more than just a public health crisis – it is an economic crisis.  As hard-working Americans are fired for being sick, they add to the growing unemployment rates and keep our economic recovery from moving forward.

There is a solution.

The Healthy Families Act introduced today by Congresswoman DeLauro (D-CT) and Senator Harkin (D-IA), will allow workers to earn up to seven paid sick days a year to recover from illness, access preventive care or look after a sick child or other family members.

This modest amount of sick leave will have a huge impact on millions of workers across the country, allowing them to take care of themselves and their loved ones when they are sick – without the fear of losing their jobs or needed wages.

And paid sick days will help workers without hurting business. In San Francisco and Washington, DC, where laws have already been enacted, studies have shown that workers are not only healthier but more productive when they have access to paid sick days.  Six in seven employers surveyed in San Francisco say that paid sick days have had no negative effect on profitability, and two-thirds of employers support the law.

In order to strengthen jobs and the economy, safeguard public health and protect working families, we need paid sick days – and we need the Healthy Families Act.

this blog post is a repost from family values at work.

A young single mom of three is fired for taking a day off to care for her sick child.

A new mother signs up for the only maternity leave available, public assistance.

A working mother is disciplined for taking time off to attend an important meeting with her child’s teacher.

A low-income mother is able to work only because her teen-aged daughter cares for her ailing grandmother after school.

Today, on Mother’s Day, Family Values @ Work pledges to continue its support for all hardworking and dedicated mothers. Our vision is a Mother’s Day when no mom has to risk her job to take care of herself and her family.

In these tough economic times, it is more important than ever that we have workplace standards that ensure the health and economic security of our working families.

We salute all the state coalitions that make up Family Values @ Work Consortium. Thank you for your amazing organizing to win family-friendly workplace policies such as paid sick days, affordable family and medical leave, and flexible work options.

“Batavia School District Nurse Cathy Meyer often finds herself tangling with parents over sending their kids to school sick.

And the students don’t just have the sniffles.

One day last month, three kids were vomiting as they got off the school bus.

When she confronts parents about sending kids who are sick, she learns the truth:

The uncertain economic climate has resulted in more kids coming to school ill, because their parents fear losing their jobs if they stay home with their kids.” Read more here.

Despite the bleak news coming from across the country regarding budget deficits and workers’ rights, paid sick days campaigns are still providing bright spots in this tough policy year.  On Tuesday, after a packed rally and a long but successful hearing, the Philadelphia Public Health and Human Services Committee voted to move the Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces Bill out of Committee.  The Philadelphia bill will now go on to consideration by the full City Council.

Testimony came from national experts, local advocates, workers, and businesses.  One testifier, Dewetta Logan, is the owner of Smart Beginnings Early learning Center in West Philadelphia .  She testified that “Offering paid sick days to my employees has increased the productivity at Smart Beginnings by allowing us to produce consistently quality childcare…. My employees use their paid sick days wisely and responsibly, and have in no way taken advantage of them.”

Another testifier, Diane Mohney, was a school nurse for 29 years and now works as a substitute school nurse on occasion.  She said “For a number of reasons I support the paid sick leave legislation before City Council.  As a nurse, I see this legislation as a way of protecting the public, one’s co-workers, and students from illnesses carried into places of employment and schools.  I support it because parents need to be able to stay home with sick children, they need to be able to come to school for their children when they become ill during the school day, and they need to be able to take them for medical appointments.  Emergency rooms are not geared to the provision of primary care, nor should they be.  Teachers and other students should not be exposed to communicable diseases.  Ill children should not have to endure the rigors of a school day when they should be home in bed.”

We would like to thank the members of the Coalition for Healthy Families and Workplaces as well as the City Council members who voted (unanimously!) for the bill.  But we know this is also a time to keep moving forward on sick days for the 41 percent of workers in Philadelphia who must choose between working sick and losing their pay (or their jobs).  If you live in Philadelphia and want to support earned sick days, please visit our blog to learn what actions you can take.

Americans often take pride in ways their nation differs from others. But one distinction — lack of a nationwide policy of paid maternity leave — is cited in a new report as an embarrassment that could be redressed at low cost and without harm to employers.

“Despite its enthusiasm about ‘family values,’ the U.S. is decades behind other countries in ensuring the well-being of working families,” said Janet Walsh, deputy director of the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch. “Being an outlier is nothing to be proud of in a case like this.”

Human Rights Watch, based in New York, focuses most of its investigations on abuses abroad. But on Wednesday, with release of a report by Walsh on work/family policies in the U.S., it takes the relatively unusual step of critiquing a phenomenon affecting tens of millions of Americans.

The report, “Failing its Families,” says at least 178 countries have national laws guaranteeing paid leave for new mothers, while the handful of exceptions include the U.S., Swaziland and Papua New Guinea. More than 50 nations, including most Western countries, also guarantee paid leave for new fathers.

Read the whole piece here

Hot off the press: A new study shows that two-thirds of employers support nation’s first paid sick days law

Strengthening the case for new paid sick days laws in Maine and across the country, a research study has found significant benefits for workers and minimal impact on businesses from the nation’s first paid sick day law, enacted in 2007 in San Francisco. Two-thirds of employers surveyed there support the law and six in seven employers say that paid sick days have had no negative effect on profitability.  The law has provided paid sick leave to additional 59,000 workers – 17% of the city’s entire workforce — who did not previously have it.

The findings, from the independent, non-partisan Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) are building new momentum for efforts to enact paid sick days across the U.S.

This data –from businesses large and small – shows paid sick days is not a significant threat to the bottom line and that employees use it responsibly. This report further discredits attempts by opponents of this family-friendly legislation to scare the public about its impact on business.

Under the San Francisco Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (PSLO), any part- or full-time employee who works in the city—even for a company that is based elsewhere—earns one hour of paid sick time for every thirty hours worked. Workers can accumulate a maximum of nine days in firms with more than 10 employees and five days in smaller firms. Workers begin to accrue leave 90 calendar days after the date of hire. Leave may be used for workers’ own illness, injury, health conditions, and medical appointments, and to care for family members or a “designated person.”

According to the IWPR report, more than half of covered employees reported some benefit due to the law, and one out of four workers reported that they were better able to care for their own and their families’ health.

The study found that workers used the law responsibly. The median worker used just three sick days per year, well below the cap, suggesting that workers view paid sick days as a form of insurance – a valuable benefit when illness strikes, but to be saved for use as needed. Employers don’t wind up paying for the full number of sick days a worker may have earned.

The report, San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance: Outcomes for Employers and Employees by Robert Drago, Ph.D., and Vicky Lovell, Ph.D., was based on surveys of over 700 employers and nearly 1,200 employees in San Francisco.