Production, pay rarely immune
Saturday, October 16, 2004 11:49 PM PDT
By Washington Post
Printable version
E-mail this articleWASHINGTON -- The shortage of flu vaccine this fall poses serious challenges for employers concerned about productivity, and for low-wage workers who don't have paid sick leave and can't afford to miss a day.
Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies show that immunized workers have 44 percent fewer doctor visits during the flu season. That's one reason, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, why 60 percent of business organizations usually offer flu shots to their workers.
But with half the expected supply missing this fall, government health officials are telling workers they should stay home if they get the flu so the illness doesn't spread.
That means a change of plans for many companies. McLean, Va., mortgage buyer Freddie Mac told workers in a memo Tuesday that, in place of the vaccine, they should wash their hands, get plenty of sleep and eat well to help ward off illness.
Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., a McLean technology consulting firm, had to call off planned shots for employees too. "Fortunately, we're a youthful and healthful workplace," said spokesman George Farrar.
The outlook isn't as hopeful for the half of the American workforce that doesn't have paid sick leave, and thus has to work or lose money.
Connie Smith says her manager gave her an ultimatum when she came down with the flu last January: Come to work sick or don't come back. So Smith, a store manager at a Popeyes in Milwaukee, worked her way through the 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. shift, coughing all over the crispy fried chicken, she recalls.
"She told me she didn't have nobody to replace me, and if I took the day off, I didn't have a job," Smith said. A doctor's note saying that she needed to take time off didn't matter, Smith said. "She still didn't let me take those days off. I was sneezing and vomiting."
John Brodersen, owner of the Milwaukee Popeyes, said, "The manager must have made a mistake" in Smith's case. "We don't pay anybody for sick days," he said. "But on the other hand, we don't require people to work if they are sick. That's our policy."
The Family and Medical Leave Act, which covers about 70 percent of the workforce, mandates that workers at companies with 50 or more employees get 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year.
Linda Meric, director of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women, said that because of the gap in benefits, her group is supporting a proposal in Congress that would provide seven days of paid sick leave to every American worker.
The United States lags far behind most countries when it comes to time off for employees, be it sick leave, maternity leave, or absence to take care of a sick relative.
A study released this summer by Harvard University's Project on Global Working Families reported that 139 other countries provide paid leave for short- or long-term illnesses. And 117 of those nations guarantee workers a week or more of paid sick days per year. Meanwhile, at least 37 countries have policies guaranteeing parents some type of paid leave when their children are ill. The United States doesn't.
"In a state of affairs where the U.S. does not give sick leave to half of Americans, most of those workers feel they can not stay home. So without a doubt, we are spreading influenza and other illness," said Jody Heymann, associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, an author of the study. "What we should be doing on all fronts is fighting with the right and left hand, both with vaccines and preventing exposure by helping people stay home so they don't infect others. We do not have that now."
Business groups oppose the idea of requiring paid sick leave, saying it would cost companies too much money.
"We'd likely oppose the bill because it sets a precedent for mandatory paid leave, which will only be expanded," said Randel Johnson, U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president of labor. "There already is a requirement in law that requires 12 weeks of unpaid leave. It would be a detriment for some businesses because some can afford paid leave and some can't."
Brian McDonough, the general manager of Contact One, a call center in Lakewood, Colo., doesn't offer paid sick leave to his employees. "We are a call center who answers calls on a 24/7 basis. Right now, it's every person for themselves," McDonough said. If the flu hits the 30 employees at his business, the company will "just juggle schedules and probably have to go into an overtime situation for those employees" who are not ill.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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