Flu Planning and Sick Leave

Posted on September 9, 2009 by townsend

• Flu season: N.H. lawmakers may mandate paid sick days, By Michael McCord, September 8, 2009, Portsmouth Herald: “As concerns grow over the medical and economic impact of the H1N1 flu virus, a bill currently dormant in the New Hampshire Legislature to mandate paid sick leave may be revived by supporters. According to a state study in 2007, more than 50 percent of employers in New Hampshire had no paid sick leave policy for full-time employees and the number grew to 80 percent for part-time workers…”
• Swine flu brings a quandary to the workplace, By L.M. Sixel, August 30, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “When Ben – along with more than two dozen of his classmates – got sick with the swine flu last spring, his north Houston elementary school closed for the rest of the year. His mother, Melinda Flannery, said she was lucky because her son never got really sick. It also helped, she said, that her boss at Rice University was supportive of the 2½ weeks she had to spend away from the office…”
• Paid sick leave draws closer for city workers, By Jennifer 8. Lee, August 20, 2009, New York Times: “New York City could soon join San Francisco and Washington in requiring paid sick days for employees – a move that could affect as many as one million workers in the city. On Thursday, the City Council introduced legislation mandating that large employers give workers the ability to earn least nine paid sick days to workers per year, while small businesses who have fewer than 10 employees would earn five sick days…”
• Swine flu fight: Keep sick kids at home, but parents need paid sick days, says hero school nurse, By Samuel Goldsmith, September 8, 2009, New York Daily News: “Keeping kids at home from school when they get sick is one of the most important ways to stop the spread of swine flu. But plenty of parents can’t skip a day of work to watch their children – and that worries the hero school nurse who first detected the virus in New York. The head nurse at St. Francis Preparatory – the Queens school that became the epicenter of swine flu in the spring – says New York City needs a law to force all employers to provide paid sick days…”