Excerpt from: Direct Care Alliance, Inc. (click for full article)
The movement to win paid sick leave for the nation’s workers won a major victory in New York City last week, when an agreement was reached on a bill that would require all employers in the city with at least 15 employees to give their full-time workers five paid sick days a year. A similar victory was just won in Portland, Oregon, and the Philadelphia city council recently passed a paid sick days bill.
The Philadelphia and New York City bills have not yet been enacted, and both city’s mayors are expected to veto them. Support from New York’s city council is expected to be strong enough to override the veto, but Philadelphia was one vote shy of a strong enough majority to override a mayoral veto.
Paid sick leave is important to direct care workers and the people they care for. About a quarter of all nursing assistants in nursing homes and half of home health aides working for agencies do not receive any sick leave. Low wages make it difficult for most direct care workers to take unpaid time off, so many are often forced to go to work when they are injured or ill, putting their own health and the health of their clients at risk.
You can help win paid sick leave for more hard-working Americans. Tell Congress to support The Healthy Families Act, a bill that calls for a national paid sick days standard, by signing this online letter—or personalize it to tell Congress why this issue is particularly important to direct care workers in general, or to you in particular.
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