We want paid sick days

[Nikia]

We recently had an employee meeting where some employees brought up some concerns. One of the big concerns was that we do not get any paid sick days. The human resources said that each company has different benefits and the company has chosen not to offer this benefit.
I am not good at speaking in front of a lot of people so I don't think I clearly explained my point. I said that it might be to the benefit of the company to offer this benefit because without paid sick days, some employees will come to work when they are very ill and infect others. One days wages is a significant amount of money to do without.
I am thinking about writing a better clearer arguement. Perhaps, I'll have to do some research. I think that this is a valid concern about sick people coming to work. The wage that most production works make $9.10-$11.40 per hour is enough that a significant amount is earned in one day but not enough that these people would have much extra money after paying bills if any. This is a problem for the company because sick people could infect others leading to higher absenteeism amongst those who may not be as tough minded or need the money as much, the sick worker is less efficient and will stay sick longer than if he or she rested at home, and there may be a risk of the sick employee collapsing at work or being at higher risk of an accident.
Are these good reasons? Can anyone think of any more good reasons or have links to how sick people can negatively affect the workplace? My company is a food manufacturer (but with no cases of previous food contamination) for those who may think that is pertainent.

[acmavm]

1. Those are perfectly valid reasons. But don't expect to make any impact

with them. The thinking amongst the powers that be is "if they ain't here and they ain't working, they don't deserve to be paid."

[Nikia]

3. You never know about impact

I wrote a powerful letter to the powers to be about random drug testing that they were going to put into effect one month after announcing it. That was at the beginning of summer and we haven't heard anything about it, but no one has been tested.
I do think that this one will be tougher to influence them since this has always been company policy and has been working for them so far. I think you are right about their attitude towards employees too.

[ProudGerman]

4. also management has lost the ability to see the indirect

Management can only see short term, and what is painfully obvious. They can't see long term or the indirect effects of their decisions.

Yes, a sick worker coming works slower, but he's working. That's all they see. They are too stupid to realize that next week, 5 workers will be sick and working slower. They don't see the money being pissed away because 5 workers are working at reduced productivity, and the original worker producing less in 5 days because he was sick than what he would have produced in 3-4 healthy days.

These are the same brain dead cretins making more money than they know what to do with that think 2 weeks of vacation is some kind of reward to be worked towards after years in the company. The same morans who think workers are incapable of thinking so are less valuable to a company than they are, even though the workers are the only ones who have a direct, and huge, effect on the compnaies bottom line.

Besides, the middle ages aren't over. We are still serfs, except not to land owning petty royalty, but now to the corporate oligarchy. We the workers produce AND buy the shit that runs the economy, but are pissed on at every chance. The economy begins and ends with us.



Sorry, seems I got off on a little rant there. Maybe its because I had to raise holy hell with my company to make them re-imburse me for the gas I use in my personal vehicle to do company work.

[E_Zapata]

2. I bet OSHA has some studies on this.

Seriously. It is a health concern. Or maybe some department of health. I bet there are studies on how much more productive it is for the company to have sick days.

There is nothing worse than having someone schlep in with a nasty cold/flu.

Or, even better.......why not pose as a college student doing a research paper on this issue - the benefits for the company for extending certain benefits to their employees. And contact a human resources person at a big company that DOES offer sick pay.....and see how they figure the benefit works in the company's favor. And ask for any material proof that supports that.

Yeah.....make it a research project......tabs and index and all...

(and if you don't get a positive response from the company.....leak it to the employees. Or call a union to see about unionizing you guys. Go Norma Rae!)

[Don_G]

5. I Don't Know About OSHA

But I'm certain any university affilated with a hospital has literally tons of research papers on "nonsocomial" infections laying around in their pre-med and business programs.

Might want to ask for copies since the research has already been done and for a good cause....

[Robb]

6. Do you accrue vacation time?

I ask because my wife's company used to have both, sick and vacation time, and it produced a lot of paperwork. They had a company-wide meeting, and voted to axe sick time in favor of just accruing vacation time -- which you'd take whenever, whether you were sick, or wanted to hit a kid's ball game, or needed a day to run errands, whatever. :shrug:

[Nikia]

7. We don't have that good of vacation benefits

The first year, we get no vacation time. The next year, it is prorated with the vacation year starting in January. Since I started in May, I got 3 days. For the next two years, we get 5 days. Then it goes to 7. A few years later, it is 10. If you have been there more than 20 years, you get 20 days of vacation. I suppose that it is good for those serving 20 years, but those who have been there less time are usually the one's supporting families. We have had people use vacation days for illness or an extra days for paid funeral leave (We get 2 days if a spouse, child, or parent dies and 1 if a sibling or grandparent or grandchild dies). You lose those days every year if you don't take them. For some strange reason, we aren't allowed to take vacation days after one week before Christmas until the end of the year.

[Robb]

9. Not too surprising

...depending on your industry. For example, when I worked for a ski area, you better believe you couldn't take Christmas off!

I think if you want your employer to expand your benefits package, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Studies on employee retention (do you have a lot of turnover?) versus benefit packages are pretty common. HR departments also have pretty good information (sadly) on the average number of days a person is sick in a year, and tend to base stuff on that -- in other words, if you go too far over, they feel they have good incentive (and protection) to fire you.

However, I would think any employer would be agreeable to a trade-out of benefits; in other words if you have a benefit that no one in the company thinks is particularly worthwhile, management would be fools to not want to trade it out for sick days. It's a no-lose situation for them -- increase employee satisfaction with zero additional cost.

But I doubt you'll get anywhere with the "keeping sick people home" tack, unfortunately. I'd be willing to bet the statistical numbers on an incapacitating contagious disease spreading through a workforce are pretty low, as probably are those for human diseases spreading through whatever food they're sending out. Low enough, in risk assessment terms, to not do anything, and rely on liability insurance to protect them if it ever happens.

[ChoralScholar]

8. I feel your pain...

When I was a regional manager with Spartan Computer Services, I was on salary. Most weeks I would work 85-90 hours and would get paid no more than if I had worked 40. However, if I ever got sick.. they made damn sure to subtract one day's pay from my salary. They said "when you're out.. we've got to pay someone else to do your job". It's funny, when the guy who covered for me didn't get the 200 dollars or so that I would have gotten paid for the day. What a f-ing double standard. I hate corporations.