Business

For Many Low-Income Workers, Calling In Sick is a Luxury

Published

9 years ago

May 19, 2015

In this Friday, May 15, 2015 photo, Shannon Henderson buckles her son, Justin, 1, into his car seat for the ride to his father’s house before she goes to her job as a part-time customer service representative at Wal-Mart in Sacramento, Calif. Henderson is one of an estimated 40 million American workers for who calling in sick is a luxury. If they dont work, they dont get paid. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Retail Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — For Shannon Henderson, getting a cold or flu could be the difference between putting food on the table and going hungry.

As a part-time customer service representative at a Wal-Mart in Sacramento, California, Henderson is one of an estimated 40 million American workers for who calling in sick is a luxury. If they don’t work, they don’t get paid.

“I’m super afraid of getting sick,” said Henderson, 29, who slathers on hand sanitizer at work in hopes of fending off illness.

Paid sick leave is the next frontier in the fight for the country’s lowest earners. Some of the same workers’ rights groups that grabbed headlines recently by pushing companies for wage hikes are steering the conversation toward paid sick leave. The debate has caught the attention of governments and companies alike.

President Barack Obama is calling for federal legislation that would require companies to guarantee workers paid sick days. And since San Francisco started requiring that in 2007, nearly 20 cities and three states — Connecticut, Massachusetts and California — have passed similar measures. New York, Maryland and other states are considering laws too. And McDonald’s Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which have announced wage hikes recently, are making changes to their paid sick leave policies.

“Paid sick days are a job issue,” said Ellen Bravo, executive director for Family Values @ Work, a network of coalitions fighting to pass paid sick days and family leave policies. “When you don’t have sick pay, you get docked.”

The new focus comes amid wide disparities between the benefits received by the top and bottom rungs of the corporate ladder. Sixty-one percent of U.S. workers get at least one paid sick day, according to a national compensation survey of employee benefits conducted last year by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But only 20 percent of workers whose wages are at the bottom 10 percent get paid sick leave, compared with 87 percent in the top 10 percent. There’s also a difference when comparing part-time and full-time employees: Seventy-four percent of full-time workers get paid sick leave, while 24 percent of part-time workers do, according to BLS.

Despite the disparities, some industry groups are fighting against laws requiring sick leave pay. Lisa Horn, director of congressional affairs at Society for Human Resource Management, a human resource management trade group, says many companies are leaning toward policies that lump sick, personal and vacation days together. But she says laws force companies to scale back on those benefits to keep down the costs associated with people taking sick days off.

“These mandates have a chilling effect on employers’ ability to innovate and be creative with their leave options,” she said.

Eileen Appelbaum, senior economist at Center for Economic and Policy Research, says mandated sick pay has not had a negative impact on some companies that have been surveyed. According to a survey the group did of businesses in Connecticut, which has required paid sick leave since 2012, one-third of workers took no paid sick leave. “They treat them as insurance,” she said.

Big companies with operations nationwide are changing their paid sick leave policies ahead of legislation.

In February, Wal-Mart, the largest U.S. private employer, said within about a year it would end the one-day wait for sick pay for all full-time U.S. workers. That’s a change from the current system that requires Wal-Mart workers in the U.S. to wait a day to use sick days, which means they have to use personal days on the first day out sick. (Full-time workers can earn up to two personal days and about six days of sick leave pay a year.)

Randy Hargrove, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the company also is reviewing its sick policy for part-time workers, who account for half of its 1.3 million-person workforce in the U.S. Currently, if part-time workers are ill, they have to use personal days.

McDonald’s is taking a different approach by lumping personal and sick days together. Starting July 1, full-time and part-time workers at company-owned restaurants will begin to accrue personal paid time off after one year of service that can be used for sick leave.

An employee working an average of 20 hours a week will be eligible to accrue about 20 hours of paid time off a year. If employees don’t take the earned time off, they will be paid for the value of it. The benefits apply to only McDonald’s company-owned restaurants, which represent about 10 percent of its more than 14,300 restaurants nationwide.

“We’ve listened to our employees and learned that — in addition to increased wages — paid personal leave … would make a real difference in their careers and lives,” McDonald’s President and CEO Steve Easterbrook said in a statement.

Workplace experts expect other companies to follow Wal-Mart and McDonald’s. “More employers are voluntarily adopting paid sick leave programs,” says Mark Girouard, an employment attorney at Nilan Johnson Lewis who represents national retailers.

That is welcome news to workers who struggle to make ends meet when they take a sick day.

Henderson, the customer service rep, works under the 34 hours per week average that would make her a Wal-Mart full-time employee, so the company’s policy change doesn’t affect her. She said she’s looking forward to California’s sick leave mandate, which goes into effect in July and allows workers one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

The single mother of an infant makes $10 an hour — an annual paycheck of a little over $16,000. Henderson, who says she can’t afford to take time off, has gone to work with a runny nose and no voice. But last year, she said she took time off when she was pregnant because of morning sickness.

“We are human,” said Henderson, who is a member of a labor-backed group OUR Walmart, which has pressed the retailer for higher wages and expanded benefits. “We can’t control being sick.”

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Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024

Published

21 hours ago

November 1, 2024

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Business

Chevron Reports Progress in Flaring, Emissions at Community Town Hall

At the first in a series of community town halls on Oct. 16, Chevron Richmond reported a reduction in year-over-year flaring incidents, both in number and duration, and detailed new technologies and processes that will further drive down emissions and heighten community awareness about operations. Chevron employees also answered questions from the community and listened to concerns at the town hall, which was hosted by Ceres Policy Research and held at CoBiz in downtown Richmond.

Published

5 days ago

October 28, 2024

Oakland Post

Community member Kathleen Sullivan speaks at the Chevron town hall. Photo courtesy Richmond Standard.

By Mike Aldax

The Richmond Standard

Chevron employees also answered questions from the community and listened to concerns at the town hall, which was hosted by Ceres Policy Research and held at CoBiz in downtown Richmond.

Similar town halls will be held twice per year over the next five years as part of a settlement agreement with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD).

The goal is to increase transparency about flaring and increase opportunities for the community to get answers to their questions about potential impacts to the community.

A key output is the creation of a Community Action Plan, or CAP. The CAP aims to create a two-way dialogue between Chevron and neighbors around flaring and environmental compliance.

“Chevron’s focus in this process is one of learning and engagement,” said Brian Hubinger, public affairs manager at Chevron Richmond. “We felt the most efficient way was to bring together a broad selection of community members rather than just think about what it would take to comply with the settlement agreement.”

The first town hall drew a few dozen members of the community, including Chevron employees, representatives of fence-line neighborhoods and members of local environmental organizations.

During the event, Chevron employees reported that 19 BAAQMD-reportable flaring incidents occurred at the refinery from October 2022 to September 2023 with a total duration of 270 hours. During the same period this year, 18 flaring incidents occurred with a total duration of 159 hours, marking a 41% decrease in duration.

Further gains are expected with the implementation of Flare IQ, set to be installed this year and next on all of the refinery’s flaring systems. Flare IQ is described as a supercomputer with an algorithm that gathers data from operations and enables employees to address potential issues before they occur.

Chevron also reported a 40% decrease in particulate matter emissions since the completion of the refinery modernization project in 2018.

In addition, flare gas volume related to Chevron’s new hydrogen plant project, built as part of the modernization project, decreased by 85% since 2019. The hydrogen plant has also reportedly made the refinery 20% more efficient.

“We’re really proud about that,” said Kris Battleson, manager of health, safety and environment at Chevon Richmond.

Neighborhood council leaders joined the president of the local NAACP in lauding the effort toward transparency and accountability. Among them was Vernon Whitmore, president of the Sante Fe Neighborhood Council and member of the 15-person CAP committee.

“The way we were able to talk openly and freely with Chevron – honestly, bluntly and frankly – while developing this program was very good,” Whitmore said. “And it was something that was well-needed at this time.”

Still, residents are skeptical, including Kathleen Sullivan, a longtime community advocate who also serves on the CAP committee. But she added, “you can’t complain about something and not be involved in the solution.”

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Bay Area

S.F. Mayor London Breed Meets with Black Businesswomen Supporting Her Campaign

San Francisco Mayor London Breed met with 50 supporters at Cafe 22 in San Francisco’s Union Square hosted by cafe owner LaRonda “Sug” Smith, who is also president of the Enterprising Women Networking SF Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association. Wearing a royal blue pantsuit, Breed happily greeted the group of seniors, business owners, and longtime community members.

Published

5 days ago

October 28, 2024

Oakland Post

San Francisco Mayor London Breed addresses her supporters at a Meet and Greet at Cafe 22 on Mason Street in Union Square. Photo By Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

Wearing a royal blue pantsuit, Breed happily greeted the group of seniors, business owners, and longtime community members.

The mayor stated that the race is a close one competing with wealthy opponents, however she feels confident in her track record of accomplishments, qualifications and being a native San Franciscan.

“My opponents may have the money, but I’ve got the people,” she said .

In response to COVID-19’s impact on Black-owned and serving businesses, in 2020 Mayor Breed launched the African American Revolving Loan Fund, providing zero-interest loans of up to $50,000.

In 2022, Mayor Breed ensured the loans nade to 51 businesses were forgiven. Through her ‘Opportunities for All’ initiative she ensured all 13- 24-year-olds have access to paid internships and a career pathway. Since its launch in 2018, the program has made over 10,000 placements. Ninety-five percent were people of color and 23% were African American.

In 2022, Mayor Breed launched the Black 2 San Francisco initiative hosting HBCU, Historically Black Colleges and Universities for summer programming, a part of her downtown economic recovery and revitalization efforts.

Launched in partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Health and Expecting Justice, Breed provided a monthly income of $600-$1000 to expecting mothers of color to reduce the economic stress that leads to racial birth disparities.

The program was the first of its kind in the nation and will expand from 150 recipients to 425. Breed helped fund a new small business hub at the City’s African American Arts and Cultural District.

In 2021, Mayor Breed proclaimed Juneteenth as an official City holiday, celebrating the Black community’s resilience and emergence from slavery.

Mayor Breed also reinvested $60 million of City funds annually to assist the City’s Black community in breaking a cycle of poverty.

Business training assisted 350 entrepreneurs,

Over 50 businesses entered or renewed leases,
1,000 residents completed workforce training,
Over 50 families and seniors secured mortgages and 6,000 households were provided nutritional support.
1,000 hours of mental health support and 38,000 young people were provided support
Nearly 1,000 youth recieved literacy and mentorship support, and nearly 40 educators were supported.

“A people that are 5% of the population, should not be 40% of the homeless population or condemned to poverty,” said Breed. “It’s not all about the numbers, but the overall disparity.”

Breed says she understands the plight of the underserved and is a mayor for all people but the data shows the African community left behind.

“When you uplift a community, you uplift the City and we invested in the Latino communities and in the Stop Asian Hate movement with resources to address those challenges,” said Breed. “Because ultimately, as mayor, it is my job to serve and protect all of the City.” “I’ve helped over 20,000 exit homelessness and increased our shelter capacity by 70%.”

The attacks Mayor Breed has experienced recently have reminded her that being a Black woman, you have to work twice as hard and yet be unfairly and overly scrutinized. However, Breed says she will continue to fight to lead San Francisco for another term.

“Mayor London Breed is for our people and all people in this city,” said LaRonda Smith who was awarded a proclamation from the mayor’s office. “This city is her community, she cares and has supported so many communities, organizations, and small businesses to prove it.” The event also served a celebration of Cafe 22’s three years in business at 325 Mason St. in San Francisco.

Attendees included business owners Del Seymour of Code Tenderloin, Velma Landers and Idella Hill of the ABWA, and Julianne Banks.