Washington -
Against the backdrop of the H1N1 flu pandemic, Congressional Democrats are pushing for emergency sick leave legislation and using the crisis to garner support for a wider-ranging bill, both of which they say would help prevent a more rapid spread of the virus by mandating that employers provide workers paid time off.
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairing a health subcommittee hearing Tuesday morning, said requiring businesses that employ 15 or more people to offer seven paid days off a year would end a "dangerous" choice "between staying healthy and making ends meet."
Some conservatives argue that Democrats are using a public health crisis as momentum for faulty legislation that would harm businesses by inviting worker abuse.
"It's pretty obvious that they're trying to use the swine flu as a P.R. boost for something they wanted to do anyway and that was not moving forward because of its already existing flaws," said James Sherk, Bradley Fellow in Labor Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
In addition to championing the Healthy Families Act, which has seen already been pushed unsuccessfully in Congress, Dodd announced that he will soon introduce emergency sick leave legislation focused more specifically on the H1N1 flu outbreak. A similar bill was put forward last week in the House by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. It would provide up to five paid sick days to employees whose employers send them home with a contagious virus for up to two years.
There is currently no requirement for businesses of any size to provide paid sick leave. The Health Families Act would create a broad definition of sick leave and force businesses to pay for an hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked. In the hearing Tuesday, Dodd presented Desiree Rosado, a Connecticut mother and special education assistant, to bolster his case for the bill. Rosado testified that each of her three young children recently caught the H1N1 flu and she was forced to miss two weeks of work.
"I get no sick pay, so my paycheck for that period was almost nothing," Rosado said.
A Republican Senatorial aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said it was odd to see both the Bureau of Labor and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the same hearing room.
"You don't usually see labor issues being mixed in with emerging health problems," he said. "This is taking a public health crisis to help grease the skids."
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairing a health subcommittee hearing Tuesday morning, said requiring businesses that employ 15 or more people to offer seven paid days off a year would end a "dangerous" choice "between staying healthy and making ends meet."
Some conservatives argue that Democrats are using a public health crisis as momentum for faulty legislation that would harm businesses by inviting worker abuse.
"It's pretty obvious that they're trying to use the swine flu as a P.R. boost for something they wanted to do anyway and that was not moving forward because of its already existing flaws," said James Sherk, Bradley Fellow in Labor Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
In addition to championing the Healthy Families Act, which has seen already been pushed unsuccessfully in Congress, Dodd announced that he will soon introduce emergency sick leave legislation focused more specifically on the H1N1 flu outbreak. A similar bill was put forward last week in the House by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. It would provide up to five paid sick days to employees whose employers send them home with a contagious virus for up to two years.
There is currently no requirement for businesses of any size to provide paid sick leave. The Health Families Act would create a broad definition of sick leave and force businesses to pay for an hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked. In the hearing Tuesday, Dodd presented Desiree Rosado, a Connecticut mother and special education assistant, to bolster his case for the bill. Rosado testified that each of her three young children recently caught the H1N1 flu and she was forced to miss two weeks of work.
"I get no sick pay, so my paycheck for that period was almost nothing," Rosado said.
A Republican Senatorial aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said it was odd to see both the Bureau of Labor and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the same hearing room.
"You don't usually see labor issues being mixed in with emerging health problems," he said. "This is taking a public health crisis to help grease the skids."
