"House Labor Relations Committee Holds Hearing on Paid Sick Leave"

(From our friends at the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO)

On Tuesday, August 17th the Pennsylvania House Labor Relations Committee held a hearing on HB 1830 of which the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO submitted testimony. The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO commends State Representative Marc Gergely for promoting Paid Sick Leave and for introducing House Bill 1830, a bill that benefits employees and employers.

Employees without Paid Sick Leave are left with difficult choices; between working while they are sick and injured or not working and risk being reprimanded or losing their job, or between having to go to work or caring for their sick or injured family member(s) and risk losing their job. Such desperate choices are unfair to employees and can be detrimental to one's health, to a family member's health, customer safety, workplace safety and worker morale.

Support for Paid Sick Leave is strong across party lines, and nine out of ten voters support paid sick days as basic labor standard, according to a poll released by the National Partnership for Women and Families.

In April 2010, at our 39th Constitutional Convention, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO passed a resolution to advocate for Paid Sick Leave legislation. We will continue to educate all Pennsylvanians including state and federal legislators, of the need for this legislation.