Council Overwhemingly Okays Sick Leave

Despite fierce opposition from large businesses and the Chamber of Commerce, the D.C. City Council voted overwhelmingly in favor of paid sick leave Tuesday. The 11 to 2 vote in support of the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2007, was hailed by unions, workers and advocates, who had worked on the bill for nearly two years and flooded City Council with emails, phone calls and visits in recent weeks. “This historic legislation will make D.C. the second city in the nation to provide all of its workers with paid sick leave,” said Metro Council President Jos Williams. With a final vote on the bill a month away, Karen Minatelli, Deputy Director of the D.C. Employment Justice Center warned that “Unfortunately, despite numerous compromises made and given, the business lobby remains in radical opposition to this eminently reasonable bill. We thank all of the Councilmembers who voted in support of the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act and look forward to their strong support at the second reading on March 4.”  Minatelli noted that “The business lobby’s claims about the bill deliberately misrepresent its costs—and ignore the benefits.” According to an analysis of the Paid Sick and Safe Days Bill (an earlier version of the current legislation), the costs to businesses are slight, amounting on average to a $0.26 raise per worker per hour, and outweighed by estimated benefits of $0.29 per hour, in the form of reduced turnover, improved productivity, and reduced spread of illness. These estimates are based on a broader bill that would have provided 10 days to employees of most businesses, and 5 days to the very smallest businesses -- The Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act requires 3 days of paid sick and safe leave, accrued over the course of a full twelve months, for small businesses, and 1.5 days for part-time workers -- so the costs of the bill moving forward are expected to be significantly lower. “In addition,” Minatelli continued, “they overlook the costs to workers without paid sick and safe days, such as having to choose between taking care of a sick child or paying rent, or having to choose between seeking a Civil Protection Order and losing their jobs.”