Workers and Advocates Ramp Up Pressure for Legislative Action on Paid Sick Days This Year

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 23, 2023

Contact: Jenna Thompson, 949.246.1620, jthompson@ufcw324.org 

Workers and Advocates Ramp Up Pressure for Legislative Action on Paid Sick Days This Year

As COVID infections surge and children return to school, workers and health advocates say three days per year is not enough to protect families and frontline communities 

Videos and photos of Senator Gonzalez’s remarks today at the Dream Alliance and community member videos on the need for the bill: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dhX4QCZXcJBUa2dxcge6XX1LdXZVylTo?usp=sharing

California – On Wednesday, coalition members of the California Work & Family Coalition, workers, community supporters and elected officials urged the California State Assembly to expand California’s legal guarantee of paid sick days from three to seven each year. Only three weeks remain for legislators to pass Senate Bill 616 (Gonzalez). 

“We know from experience, that 3 days of sick time is not enough for working parents who need to take care of a child with COVID-19. It was not enough during the height of the pandemic, and it is not enough now,” said Senator Lena Gonzalez (D – Long Beach).“Families no longer have the temporary protections afforded by COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave, which ended last year. This back-to-school season let's commit to ensuring that parents can take the sick leave they need to take care of their health and the health of their children. I urge my colleagues in the Legislature to support SB 616 and help pass this much needed legislation this year.”

The COVID-19 pandemic made it clear how crucial it is for workers to have an adequate number of paid sick days. When workers run out of paid sick days, staying home can mean losing their job, not being able to pay their rent or put food on the table, forcing many workers to keep working while they’re sick. One person working while sick has the capability to infect an entire community.

“3 paid sick days per year is simply not enough to protect public health because the infectious period for communicable diseases is often days longer. We don’t want someone with a bad cough to work in our childcare centers, classrooms, factories, or nursing homes, and we don’t want someone with diarrhea to be processing fruits, vegetables, and meats, or to be cooking and serving food, caring for the elderly, and treating patients. SB 616 will protect community health by affording sick individuals the time to rest, heal, and isolate, while also enhancing protections for co-workers against workplace outbreaks and customers against infections.” – Curtis Chan, MD, MPH, California Conference of Local Health Officers

Now California is facing the threat of rapid spread of disease with children going back to school right as a new variant of COVID-19 is rising. Evidence shows that paid sick days stops the spread of COVID-19. California’s workers need more paid sick days so they can keep a child home from school if they’re sick and not spread the virus throughout the school.

"Three paid sick days is simply not enough for parents whose kids are going back to school this month. Working parents need to know that they can take time for their own illness or to care for a sick child without losing their ability to pay the rent. California can do better. We need to pass SB 616 now," said Jenya Cassidy, director of the California Work & Family Coalition. 

As a small business owner, I’m happy to support SB 616 because I care about the health and well-being of my staff,” said Catherean Mitchell, co-founder and owner of Mitchells Transport. “Small Business Majority research has found that most California small business owners support expanding guaranteed annual paid sick days from three to seven. Increasing paid sick days is not only the right thing to do, but it also levels the playing field with bigger businesses that can undercut small businesses on costs and the number of benefits offered. This bill makes sense. I hope policymakers will advance efforts to help keep the small business workplace healthy and thriving while saving healthcare costs for the state.”

“Increasing the amount of sick time is a show of respect for workers,” said Denise Barlage, grocery worker, Fair WorkWeek LA Coalition Worker Leader. “With 7 days of paid sick leave, workers will be able to take time to take care of themselves and their family without worrying about losing pay. It will have a positive impact on workers and the people around them. This makes the community stronger because workers can focus on their jobs and not worry when they or their family gets sick.”

“When kids get sick, working poor families too often face terrible choices: they either send their children to school so they can keep earning their whole paycheck, or they lose a chunk of the money they desperately need to keep a roof over their children’s head and food on the table,” said Jim Riffel, Instructional Aide Sacramento City Unified School District. “These families are walking a tightrope – with a very long way to fall. When that happens, the whole family experiences trauma: homelessness, social dislocation, massive amounts of stress. The other option is to send your child to school, and that is clearly not a good thing, especially when diseases like COVID, RSV, and the Flu can spread like wildfire. Sick kids don’t learn. Their families don’t have a good choice, and the entire community suffers.”

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