Paid Sick and Take-Care-of-Your-Neighbor Days to Be Mandatory in San Francisco

[stephanie]

Thursday, January 25, 2007


For many workers calling in sick means more than spending the day in bed, it also means not getting paid … unless you live in San Francisco.

Employers in the City by the Bay must now give paid sick leave to all their workers — even, in some cases, when they're not sick. One provision of the law allows workers without families to call in sick to care for a friend or neighbor — all on the boss' dime.
Voters overwhelmingly approved the measure, which is the first law of its kind in the country. It mandates sick pay for everyone from full-time cab drivers to part-time nannies. The law provides up to 9 paid sick days a year to an estimated 115,000 workers, including low-wage earners who, according to labor activists, can't otherwise afford to skip work.

A local chef says he's either going to have to raise prices or hire fewer workers:

“Sure it's kind of nice to suddenly have more sick days, but realize you end up giving something up for that, and no one ever looks at the consequences of their actions in this town, especially in politics, and especially with progressive politics," said area restaurant chef Dan Scherotter.

Local employers are having a hard time gauging the impact of the new law because the city is still drafting the rules and regulations explaining what businesses need to do to comply. But time is not on their side; the ordinance takes effect in less than two weeks.

FOX News’ Claudia Cowan contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,246799,00.html