WTNH - Proposal to Give Hourly Workers Paid Sick Leave
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Sooner or later, everyone has to take a sick day. But did you know that for thousands of Connecticut residents, no work means no pay? Many people take for granted that our employer will pay us when we, or someone in our family, gets sick.

Paid sick leave is one of the benefits most people are fortunate enough to receive. And, employers know it's necessary to keep good workers. However, there are many businesses that don't do it and several state law makers say it's time for that to change.

According to one estimate, there are more than half a million people in Connecticut, mostly hourly employees, who work in jobs where they do not get any paid sick leave. Rosie Easterling, 55, is one of them. As a single mother, she works two part-time jobs and has for ten years with good attendance.  But, recently, she had to take time off because of diabetes. "I couldn't make my rent," Easterling said. "I couldn't buy food for my home. I couldn't pay my utility bills. It was hard for me and my family."

A proposal, making it's way through the assembly, would, for the first time, allow hourly workers to accrue one hour of sick pay for every forty hours worked to a maximum of 6.5 paid sick days per year.

"People get sick, people have children who get sick," Senator Edith Prague, Chair of the Labor & Public Employees Committee, said. "For whatever reason, you need sometimes to stay home because somebody is sick."

But, many people in these jobs feel compelled to work, even when they are sick. "Many of these are industries where the risk, from a public health point of view, are the greatest, in terms of spreading illnesses both to fellow employees and the public," Jon Green, of Working Families, noted.

But the accrual aspect of the proposal is causing problems with the largest business organization in the state because of a law that is already on the books. "Which would require that whenever an employer had an accrual mechanism for giving paid time off, they have to cash out all of the unused accrual time when that employee leaves," Attorney Kia Murrell, of Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said.

It seems like a simple enough concept but nothing is easy in state government. Senator Prague says she will work to get the language right so that employers are not left holding the bag for thousands of dollars because of this.