SHRM, Democrats Tangle Over Paid-Sick-Days Bill
, June 11, 2009
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This is an excerpt from an article on Workforce.com. See entire piece at http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/26/48/55.php
“After the first hearing in its legislative history, it’s unclear whether a bill that would require companies to offer paid sick days will take a path toward reconciliation or strife between business and advocacy groups.
But at a June 11 meeting of a House Education and Labor subcommittee, the Healthy Families Act created tension between the panel’s Democratic chairwoman and an official of the Society for Human Resource Management.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-California, said the bill, which would allow employees to accrue up to seven paid sick days each year, would provide economic security for workers who cannot take time off for themselves or loved ones during an illness because they are afraid of losing their jobs.
Woolsey asserted that only 8 percent of workers have paid family and medical leave. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut and author of the bill, said that almost half of private-sector workers lack paid sick days.
SHRM chief operating officer China Miner Gorman warned that the bill would foist new requirements on employers that could turn out to be as difficult and costly to administrate as the Family and Medical Leave Act—whose 200 pages of regulations she held up at the hearing. …”
Tags: Healthy Families Act, paid sick days, paid sick leave, workforce.com