Staying Home Isn't Always Possible

By LAUREL BALDWIN RAGAVEN
May 3, 2009
With the increasing number of swine flu cases, public health officials at every level of government have worked to calm the public and to provide important information about how to guard against the illness. They with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and even the White House have reminded us of the simple, common-sense ways we can reduce the spread of the virus: Cover your mouth when you sneeze, wash your hands frequently and if you feel sick stay home from work or from school.

It's that last part, however, that could cause real problems. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of Connecticut employees do not receive paid sick days. Nobody wants to go to work sick or risk spreading illness, but if staying home means losing several days' pay and possibly losing your job, it becomes a much harder choice. In this tough economy, when people can't afford to lose any income, employees could end up going to work sick.

That is why it is important that the General Assembly adopt, and Gov. M. Jodi Rell signs, a bill before the legislature requiring that more Connecticut workers be given paid sick days. It's time to establish a reasonable and fair policy that protects public health, provides economic security for working families and balances the needs of businesses.

When employees go to work sick instead of resting or seeking treatment, it's not just their own health that's at risk. They are also likely to spread their illness in the workplace, jeopardizing the health of their co-workers and the general public.
It gets worse. Employees who lack paid sick days are concentrated in occupations with high levels of contact with the public, often with vulnerable populations. Many of the people without paid sick days work as school bus drivers, home health aides, day-care providers, grocery workers and restaurant employees.

Do we really want the people who bag our groceries, drive our kids to school, care for our sick and elderly, and prepare our food to show up at work with contagious illness?

The bill under consideration is carefully crafted to balance the needs of employers and employees while protecting the public's health. It exempts businesses with fewer than 50 employees, guards against employee abuse and allows employers flexibility by permitting other paid time-off policies to be counted toward the sick leave requirement. It also serves to benefit all of us by reducing the transmission of infectious disease.

Of course, pandemics don't happen every day. We're all thankful for that. But we need to be prepared for them. And we should remember how quickly even a run-of-the-mill seasonal flu can churn through a school, a restaurant, an office or a hospital.

As we prepare for a potentially serious epidemic, we shouldn't be giving workers mixed signals. It's time that we recognize the need for workplace policies that don't undermine common-sense public health practices. Gov. Rell has said that people with flu symptoms should stay home. Let's make sure employees can actually do that without worrying about missing a mortgage payment or losing their job. Making employees come to work sick isn't just unfair; it's unhealthy for all of us.

•Dr. Laurel Baldwin Ragaven of West Hartford works as a family doctor at the Asylum Hill Family Practice Center and is a supporter of the Working Families party that backs the paid sick leave bill.