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http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-websickfeb10,0,5303948.story
By DANIELA ALTIMARI | The Hartford Courant2:46 PM EST, February 9, 2009
A coalition of advocacy groups, led by Connecticut Working Families, is pushing for a change in laws regulating employee sick time.
They want lawmakers to require every business of 50 employees or more to grant workers one hour of paid sick time for every 40 hours of work with a cap of 6.5 paid days per year.
Such a law, advocates said today, makes sense, and not just on human terms. Sick employees who come to work pose a potential public health hazard, spreading germs to their co-workers and to members of the public.
Do you really want someone with the flu making your sandwich? asked Sen. John Kissel, a Republican from Enfield and co-sponsor of the measure. "That's just bad public policy," he added.
Moreover, workers who refuse to stay home when sick can risk becoming sicker, said Dr. Laurel Baldwin-Ragaven, a family physician in Hartford.
The measure, which passed the Senate last year but did not come up for a vote in the House, has bipartisan support.
But the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, which counts 10,000 businesses among its members, is squarely opposed to the bill. The group says it will add yet another burden on already struggling businesses.
"In today's economy, businesses are making some really hard choices," said Kia Murrell, assistant counsel at CBIA. Connecticut already has a high minimum wage, a generous family and medical leave policy and a number of other requirements that have proven costly to businesses, she said.
"Now is the worst time to increase mandates on businesses in this state," Murrell said.
