Slacker laws

NPR did a story on the one year anniversary of San Francisco's mandatory paid sick leave law.

I don't know, maybe I am just a heartless woman.

I have very little patience with these sorts of things. Having employed a number of people who were less than dependable employees and less than conscientious or considerate of their co-workers, I see these sorts of laws as an invitation for abuse.

One of the justifications for these ridiculous laws is that it makes the workplace healthier because employees don't have to come to work sick and infect their co-workers. In my experience, the majority of the time that employees call in sick, they are not contagious. They are hung over or tired or have a migraine or a muscle strain. That is, if they're even under the weather at all and not just out playing.

San Francisco's law requires one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. That works out to 72 hours per year. That's like an additional two weeks of vacation. That's just crazy.

In addition, since time off taken per the mandatory paid sick leave policy cannot be used for disciplinary reasons, the employer has no recourse in the case where an employee requests vacation time, is turned down due to staffing requirements and then calls in sick. Talk about interfering in the employer/employee relationship.

Also, since the mandatory paid sick leave can be carried over, the city of San Francisco has placed the employer in a position where it could be faced with paying out a lot of leave at a much higher rate of pay than the rate of pay at which it was earned.

My office gives 3 sick days and anywhere from one to four weeks of vacation. Employees can only carry over a maximum of one week of vacation. Any unused sick time is taken into account during the employee's annual review and the employee's dependability is reflected in his/her raise.

It is extremely rare for an employee who has a strong work ethic to use all of his/her sick days in a year. Most of the employees who are not hard workers do use all their sick days each year.

I have to say that if Aspen or Colorado passed a law requiring more sick leave, I would strongly suggest to the owners that they adjust the amount of vacation offered.

Really, it just comes down to the fact that this sort of government meddling isn't a good idea.

San Francisco Orders Paid Sick Leave for All.

For every 30 hours worked, an employee shall accrue one hour of paid sick leave. There is a cap of 40 hours of accrued paid sick leave for employees of employers for which fewer than 10 persons (including full-time, part-time, and temporary employees) work for compensation during a given week. For employees of other employers, there is a cap of 72 hours of accrued paid sick leave. An employee’s accrued paid sick leave carries over from year to year. Employees are entitled to paid sick leave for their own medical care and also to aid or care for a family member or designated person.