From the San Jose Mercury News:
Ma’s bill, AB 2716, would extend paid sick leave to any employee who works for seven or more days each year. Employees would “earn” sick time at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked. Sick time would carry over from year to year, but medium-to-large employers could limit annual paid sick days to nine days, small employers to five days.
Sick leave also could be used to care for a sick family member or to recover from domestic violence or sexual assault. Employers who flout the law could face fines of up to $250 per incident.
I hope the committee investigates whether this plan has worked in San Francisco.
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It is a fine principle, but why the carryover? That is costly for employers, especially with the lawsuit environment.
Suppose an employee uses no sick time for two years, then decides to take a couple weeks’ extra time off, calling it “sick.” An employer has no ability to limit potential abuse of the right, which, with the carryover provision, becomes an entitlement.
It is well established that employees take sick days when they are not sick. The legislators are out of touch as usual, each additional sick day they legislate in costs the ownership over 7, a day.
This legislation would cost my company over 43,000.
Leave companies alone and find something better to do. Why does CA continue to find ways to drive employers out??
Is this the Law? I’m not sure if we need to enforce this or if it’s still in the works.
This bill continues to make it harder for small employers to work in the state of California. Most companies have a sick leave program and at some point it makes sense to not just continue to issue new legislations that make it difficult to hire on new employees.
I own a waterpark and in a season hire aproximately 150 kids ages 15-18 who may or may not come back next year. The paper work is going to be a nightmare to keep on the books. Another good idea gone bad.
I am complying with this law in San Francisco already. My previous policy was to pay up to 4 sick days per year with no carry over. Our experience was that most employees then saved their sick days for when they were really sick, or used some of the hours for dentist/doctor, etc.. Of 10 employees then, I had only 1 who used all the sick time allotted. Most used from 20 to 26 hours annually. Now that employees have banked hours for over a year they are taking “sick days” at a rate that outpaces their use in prior years. I have 12 employees and 3 of them have taken 6 sick days each already this year (usually Monday ). They come in to work fully recovered the next day. More are learning this trick , or resentful of others who abuse it, and decide to abuse it themselves. Half of my staff has used double the sick time in 2008 that they used in 2006 or 2007 and we are barely halfway through the year. This law’s intention is not bad- but it should be written by business owners and employees and legislators together. The number of hours earned is excessive and the carry over encourages abuse. The employer may not insist on a doctor’s note as proof. If the carry over is meant to cover a serious illness, that should be addressed with State Disability. What employees are realizing is that once they bank 72 hours, if they don’t use the time they don’t earn more, so they catch a cold every five weeks.
If sick leave is all of a sudden a benifit that can be carried over and accrued to the next year. Then all of my employee’s will have to have their wages and benifits reviewed for possible adjustments.
I serve food and drinks to hundreds of people a day at a popular National coffee chain. Because I do not have paid sick time, when I have a cold or flu ( or some other infections sickness ) I have to decide if I can afford to stay home. I also get to decide if I’m sick enough to risk the wrath of my boss who will have to struggle to cover my shift. Paid sick days are a benefit that many workers take for granted. Potential misuse of the system is no reason to risk getting your latte from a worker spreding the flu.
I think the law is a great thing! If your employees abuse it – that is something that you need to address with them. As for my current workplace, no one has paid sick time and most of us can not afford to take days off to recover. Therefore, when anyone gets sick, we stay sick longer than if we were to stay home and rest. And guess what…since we work in a small office, when one person is sick, since they can’t afford to stay home, they come to work and the next month and a half their flu or cold or whatever they had spreads through the whole office like wild fire. Then you have more sick employees who aren’t able to work as hard as usual and most take at least a day or two off using paid vacation time. So instead of one employee taking 2-3 days off, you have 8-12 employees taking 1-2 days off over the course of a month. That hurts the production of the company. Then when the boss walks in and says “You sound horrible! You need to go home” the common reply is “I can’t afford it.” So I think it’s a good thing. My husband hates when I force myself to go to work and tells me “Forget the money! Just get better!” It’s sad that most people have to make a choice between health or money…and unfortunately in this world we live in, when we say “money” we mean “rent” not something we can exactly blow off.
WHY NOT JUST PAY OUR EMPLOYEES 40 HRS. A WEEK AND LET THEM COME TO WORK WHEN THEY FEEL LIKE WORKING. THAT WOULD BE THE RESULT IF THIS BILL PASSES.
It’s absoultley amazing how one person Assemblywomen Ma can dictate to 30,000,000 thats million people what to do. We need to write your senators and tell them to stand up and stop this law. It will do nothing but limit growth and it will increase unemployment.
An employer already pays 12% payroll taxes and workers compensation which is another 4 % of payroll now lets give more free money to everyone.
STOP TAXING US!!!!! were in a depression or havent you all noticed that the goverment has to bail out all the big firms because there going bankrupt
Small business is next
If this were to pass, I would have to pay off all vacation currently owed & revoke our paid vacation policy. This is a socialist bill and I would do everything in my power to flout it!!!
I run a small business with a tight overhead. The sad reality is that if this passes, I’m out of business. I just want to know, are my employees better off in the unemployment line?
I am an employer in SF who knows this bill needs to be amended. Employees are using this as a a form of vacation. The city does not allow employers to demand doctor notes if the employee is out less than 4 days. Scheduling is a nightmare. Good idea not well thought out. Needs to be ammended. We are looking at leaving SF. Perhaps we stay if the rest of the state is suckered into going like SF!
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