Sick-leave under assault in the workplace

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 3, 2005 | by Joe Robinson Los Angeles Times

Like any good wager, paid-time-off banks dangle a few prospects for coming out ahead. They offer, for instance, a measure of flexibility to parents, many of whom can currently be fired for staying home with a sick child. Under these plans, they don't have to give a reason for an absence -- so long as they schedule a child's bout with measles well in advance. Meanwhile, as the time bank gets drained, the incentive is for anyone not confined to a full body cast to hobble into the office.

In this Vicks VapoRub derby, it can't be surprising that 40 percent of companies are reporting a growing problem with "presenteeism" -- employees who show up sick but are too ill to get anything done. A Cornell University study found that the cost of presenteeism is higher than the combined total of the cost of absenteeism and medical and disability benefits, as people spread bugs around and make themselves sicker.

It makes zero sense for businesses to keep the wounded on the front lines. It's even more myopic for our elected officials -- who have primo benefit security -- to ignore the toll on families of our Cro-Magnon policies and pretend tens of millions of caregivers haven't entered the work force over the past 30 years.

"The overall health and well-being of families is affected, and there are costs to the public health system when you think about sending kids to school sick," said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, an advocate for women and health care in the workplace. As if that's not sickening enough, Ness notes that a large number of child care and food service workers don't have any sick leave, placing our kids and salads in the hands of contagion.

Not having any leave, of course, is even worse than the paid- time pool. "I can't afford to miss a single day," said Ramona Puentes, a Milwaukee laborer who is the sole provider for five children and lives paycheck to paycheck. She says that the lack of paid leave has cost her two jobs, once when she had to take care of her dying mother.

"It's a huge cost to the public when someone who doesn't have paid sick days loses a job and has to go on public assistance," said Linda Meric, director of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women. "People are being forced to choose between being good employees and good family members. That's not a choice anyone should have to make."

A small first step toward curing the disease that's undercutting families and spreading bugs and medical bills in the workplace would come with passage of the Healthy Families Act, scheduled to be introduced in Congress this year by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D- Mass., and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-Conn. It would guarantee employees seven paid sick-leave days a year to take care of themselves or a family member.

In the meantime, American workers have to hone their gambling instincts in the Roulette Economy, which requires a knack for betting the house, car, liver and spleen to get what the citizens of 96 other countries get by law -- the chance to indulge the fruits of your labor on guaranteed vacations, not dependent on a roll of the medical dice.