Sick leave spreads

I have a new piece up at NJ Spotlight on earned sick leave here, along with two short Instagram essays, one pro:

Dean Smith, co-owner of JaZams toy store in Princeton, supports local earned sick time ordinances and has been involved in discussions to have one drafted in Princeton. “Our experience is that the vast majority of our employees are really honest and upstanding and they are not going to take advantage because they know what it means for the rest of the folks who are working with them. If we create a positive atmosphere in the workplace where people feel cared for by us, then the care is reciprocated.” He says it has to be done by local or state law to create a level playing field for all businesses and workers and to ensure that conscientious businesses are not at a competitive disadvantage. Link in bio. #njspotlight #earnedsicktime

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One con:

Francis Schott, owner of Stage Left and Catherine Lombardi’s restaurants in New Brunswick, said local sick-time ordinances are unnecessary. “Employers who take care of their employees get a better caliber of employees,” he said. But there is political support, so “let’s put safeguards in place.” The New Brunswick ordinance, which exempts part-time workers and gives businesses the right to set black-out dates, is a good compromise. He said few businesses – especially restaurants – want workers to come in when they are sick. “We have a lot of employees and when an employee comes in sick we don’t want them to get the other employees sick,” he said. “We work in close quarters.” Link to story in bio. #njspotlight #earnedsicktime

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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

One thought on “Sick leave spreads”

  1. Rules, laws and regulations are needed. You can not trust people, businesses or corporations to do the right thing. There have to be some basic ground rules; even games have rules and regulations that often need to be revised and improved. The deregulation of the banking industry lead to bank failures and the great recession of 2008. Canada did not go on a bank deregulating binge and did not have any bank failures while the USA had hundreds of bank failures. We need paid sick leave and leaving it all up to the discretion of the business is just not going to work. Many businesses will just fire someone who gets sick and quickly replace him/her with another desperate person.

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