Just about any employer can see the
value of sick days. Besides helping
your employees get healthy, they keepsick employees away from everyone else
on your staff, ensuring that the illness doesn’t spread. But, sick days are sometimes
abused or misused, and an employer
always has to be conscious of the bottom
line, which begs the question: How many
sick days should employees get, and which
employees should get them?
A current piece of legislature being
kicked around Ohio is the Healthy Families
Act, which would require employers of 25
or more people to allow full-time employees to earn seven mandatory paid sick days
a year. Part-time employees would also be
protected on a prorated basis. Employees
and their spouses, children and parents
(including in-laws) could use these sick
days to recuperate from injuries or illnesses, obtain preventive care, or get medical
treatments.
The Ohioans for Healthy Families, a
statewide coalition of citizens and organizations, is strongly behind the act, and
they’re currently gathering support in an
effort to get the proposal on the November
ballot. On the other hand, many employers
— the ones who are aware of the act, anyway — are wary of handing out a full week
of sick days, particularly for nonfull-time
employees.
“Several business groups are rallying
together to defeat this act, but many business owners don’t even know this is going
on,” says Leah Pappas, an attorney in the
government relations practice group at
Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP. “It’s not that
companies want to deny employees sick
time, but seven full days for all employees
— part-time, full-time, half-time, whatever
— can get to be very expensive.”
Pappas adds that the problem is twofold.
With large companies, the bigger the staff,
the bigger the expense. With smaller companies, many of them only or mostly hire
part-time employees specifically because
they can’t afford to pay for sick time. Thus,
all businesses are afraid of what mandatory sick days could mean to the bottom line
and, in some cases, the companies’ future.
Smart Business spoke with Pappas and
W. Eric Baisden, a partner in the labor and employment group at Calfee, Halter &
Griswold LLP, about the Healthy Families
Act, what it will mean to your business if
passed and what employers can do about it.
What are the main things business owners
need to know about the proposed Healthy
Families Act?
As written, the act allows employees to
begin accruing the paid sick leave immediately upon hire and to use it after 90 days of
employment. Leave could be taken in the
smallest increments possible. And, unless
foreseeable, an employer only needs to
provide oral or written notice of need for
this leave ‘as soon as practicable.’ Employers may not penalize employees for utilizing their paid sick leave. Supporting medical documentation could only be required
if the leave exceeds three days. Employees
may not be penalized for availing themselves of this entitlement. Thus, an employee could arrive for work several hours late
and simply indicate that he or she was sick.
The employee must be provided paid leave
without suffering any adverse consequences. This is just one example of what
could cause employers concern above and
beyond the cost they may face in being
required to provide seven paid sick days.
If the Healthy Families Act is passed, how
will Ohio businesses be affected?
Ohio would be the first state to adopt
such a leave law. Ohio is currently struggling to remain competitive and to attract
new industry. Adding additional financial
burdens, which on the surface seem attractive, only makes it harder for Ohio to
remain competitive and to bring new jobs
to the state. Businesses will be required to
adopt the leave provided for by the act possibly even in addition to existing leave policies available to employees. This will be
especially difficult for start-up businesses
with very little room to absorb additional
costs.
Can an employer see any benefits from the
Healthy Families Act?
The purported purpose of the proposal is
an attractive one. However, most responsible employers currently offer a variety of
leave to employees, which provides flexibility and recognizes legitimate reasons to
be away from work. Horror stories of
employees being terminated for legitimate
absences are typically overblown and
based on an incomplete story. Employers
do not want to lose productive employees
and most are empathetic to personal and
family emergencies.
What should business owners do now, before
the Healthy Families Act is passed?
Business owners need to review their current leave policies since they will not be
able to make any changes after the effective
date of the act. Business owners should
consult with their employment counsel to
determine whether any modifications to
sick leave and time-off policies are necessary. Additionally, business owners should
consider getting the message out to their
employees why the act would cause hardships for the company. Business owners
should also consider becoming active in
groups working to defeat this measure. <<
LEAH PAPPAS is an attorney in the government relations practice group at Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP. Reach her at (614) 621-7007
or [email protected]. W. ERIC BAISDEN is a partner in the labor and employment group at Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP. Reach
him at (614) 621-7752 or [email protected].
Partner, labor and
employment group
Calfee, Halter &
Griswold LLP
