Board of Legislators to Propose Earned Sick Time Measure
Several Westchester County residents, union members and county employees joined members of the Westchester Board of Legislators this week in support of an earned sick day bill.
With about 36 percent of workers in Westchester lacking paid sick days, the bill proposes that most workers receive a minimum one hour of earned paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.
“I think we all know that people deserve to stay home when they’re sick,” Legislator Catherine Borgia (D-Ossining) said at the Feb. 14 press conference in White Plains. “The fact that 36 percent of Westchester workers don’t have paid sick leave means that the majority of workers do have it and people understand that this is a necessary human measure that as a society we just have to support. It’s just common sense.”
If passed, Westchester would join New York City as the second jurisdiction in the state to have a sick leave law. Similar legislation was approved and is in effect in Washington, D.C., Seattle and San Francisco along with seven states, including Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Borgia, who introduced the bill last March, said she is re-submitting the bill for discussion because of support from the Board of Legislators’ Democratic supermajority. While she received bipartisan support last year, she said she halted discussions after former county executive Rob Astorino intended to veto the legislation.
“This is a very powerful coalition,” Borgia said. “I was very proud to sponsor this legislation when we realized that a significant number of workers do not have the right to earn through their employer paid sick time, and who those people were are people who typically work with the public or work with our most vulnerable populations.”
Every member of the Democratic caucus has co-sponsored the proposed law, agreeing that it is a common-sense measure vital to supporting county employees and keeping the community safe. Legislator David Tubiolo (R-Yonkers) also supports the bill.
Chairman Ben Boykin (D-White Plains) said the law addresses a public health situation. Legislators will be bringing the bill to a vote in the coming months.
“While we will hear them (stakeholders), we’re not going to let anything stop us because we’re going to move it forward,” Boykin said. “We want it now and with the supermajority on the board we gonna get it now.”
The proposed law requires employers with at least five employees accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, for up to 40 hours of paid sick time a year. The bill also calls for employers with less than five employees to allow their workers to accrue unpaid, job protected sick time.
Additionally, the law can be used for both physical and mental illness and will also provide sick leave to employees who need to take care of an ill family member. If unused, the paid sick hours amassed over the year may be transferred to the following year.
“This is a bill that is good for employees, good for business, good for our community,” Assemblywoman Shelley Mayer (D-Yonkers) said. “This is an absolute common-sense, wisely drafted pro-Westchester piece of legislation that frankly we should adopt in Albany and let Westchester and New York City be the models for how to do better by our workers and our community.”
A broad array of unions and other organizations support the proposal, including the Transport Workers Union Local 100 (TWU), the Westchester-Putnam Central Labor Body AFL-CIO and the New York State Nurses Association.
“There are too many kids dying of the flu and if parents were allowed to stay home with them maybe this wouldn’t happen,” Jayne Cammisa, regional director of the New York State Nurses Association said. “Us nurses, we fight, we fight for what’s right. The nurses I represent at Westchester Medical Center, we’re at full capacity and more. We have more people waiting in the ER and not enough beds because of the flu epidemic so we need to get in support of this. People need to stay home when they’re sick.”
Viviana Guzman, a bus monitor with the TWU, said she had to rely on relatives and neighbors to care for her son when he had the flu last month because she couldn’t take off from work.
“Every day when I should have been there for my son to take care of him I was working, unfortunately,” Guzman said. “Westchester County residents urge you to have paid sick leave. It’s very important to us.”
