Letters: The other side of the argument on Council's paid-sick-days bill

IAGREE with the statement in your recent editorial that it's unfair that some workers don't get paid sick days. But it's ridiculous to say that government doesn't have an obligation to fix the unfairness.

Fixing unfairness should be one of our main priorities. Workers should have the right to stay home when they're sick and not lose a day's pay and not put the public's health at risk coming to work sick.

Bill 080474 will protect those who need help the most during this difficult economic time.

Low-income workers are the ones who are often forced to choose between staying home to care for themselves or their sick children or losing a day's pay. Under this bill, they no longer have to choose. A single mom can now stay home with her sick children and no longer has to risk her child infecting other children.

While this bill may place a slight burden on businesses, it's no different from the burden faced by the institution of other labor laws, including the minimum wage and a 40- hour workweek.

Every bill City Council has debated with the business community results in the same argument - it will cause businesses to leave the city. But this hasn't proven to be the case: Just look at the smoking ban.

In San Francisco, where this requirement has been in effect for four years, employers surveyed found that their profitability didn't suffer. Six out of seven didn't report any negative effect of the ordinance. The bill will also not create a new bureaucracy as this is a complaint-driven bill and will not cause the city to use resources to enforce it.

Government has an obligation to protect those who can't speak for themselves. If paid sick days are good enough for public-sector employees and the Comcasts of the world, we have an obligation to ensure that the guy flipping burgers at McDonald's and the woman making beds at the DoubleTree can stay home when they're sick and get paid.

This bill is not just a benefit for workers, but the public as well. I don't know about you, but I'd like to go out to eat and not have to worry that my server sneezed on my food.

William K. Greenlee

City councilman at large

nolead begins

Karen Brown has a lot of nerve saying that John Featherman is trying to destroy the Republican Party.

Vito Canuso and Mike Meehan have already destroyed the party.

John is trying to fix it.

Tom Schmidt, Philadelphia