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MAIN
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A Joint Project of the Maine
Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods |
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Volume 8 No. 2 |
June 2004 |
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MAIN
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A Joint Project of the Maine
Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods |
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Volume 8 No. 2 |
June 2004 |
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Paid Sick Leave for all Maine Workers?
Not this year, but we've taken a first important step!
When you are barely surviving pay check to pay check, it can be devastating to lose pay when you have to take time off from work because you or a family member is sick. MAIN, working with other advocates, supported legislation that would have required employers with 15 or more workers to provide 5 days of paid sick leave per year.
Facing strong opposition from business groups, the bill was defeated this year, but not without generating a great deal of concern about the hardships that families without sick leave face. The legislature's Labor Committee weighed the compelling stories of families with no paid sick leave coping with illness with the heavy opposition from the business community. The Committee decided they didn't have enough time or information to make a decision on this critical issue this year. In the end, they directed the Department of Labor to gather information on the range of sick leave policies offered by Maine employers, and how they affect different groups of workers. Questions aimed at getting this information will be included in a biennial survey of Maine businesses to be conducted this summer.
Many thanks to Teresa Gaetjens of Limerick, Susannah Sprague of Portland and Sarah McFarland of Mt. Vernon for their powerful testimony about why paid sick leave is so important to families. Their efforts have set the stage for an ongoing public debate over this critical issue.
Next year, aided by the findings of the Maine Department of Labor study, workers will be in a stronger position to renew their efforts to guarantee all workers a minimum amount of paid sick leave. MAIN hopes that we will all see a day in the near future when low-income families can afford to be sick, or to take a day off to ensure that a child or a parent has the critical care that they need.
