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Helen Pleads for Personal Responsibility
By Helen Wheales | November 23, 2009
This is a cross-post from Swampbubbles.com
From the Toledo Blade Letters to the Editor: November 22, 2009
Headline: Let sick workers stay home
As a nation and a region, we are battling uniquely difficult circumstances created by a harsh economic recession and a national health emergency — the spread of the H1N1 flu.
Call it a request or a suggestion, but to avoid having one problem compound the other here in Lucas County, we’d like all workers to be able to stay home when they’re sick with the flu.
It is recommended that all workers with influenza stay home until they are well, which is generally considered to be 24 hours without a fever without the use of aspirin, Motrin, etc. All told, those infected with H1N1 or “swine flu” could need several days to recover.
About 40 percent of all private-sector employees in the United States do not have paid sick days — or the ability to recover from illnesses like swine flu without losing chunks of income or their jobs in general. We don’t know exactly what that number is here in Toledo and Lucas County, but low-income and part-time employees typically do not have paid sick days, and about 23 percent of Toledo residents had incomes below the poverty level in 2007.
If a significant portion of our workforce continues to come to work for fear of losing income or even their jobs, this could result in many more colleagues, fellow workers, and employers becoming ill. This could turn a controllable situation into a major problem for a company.
And if those without paid sick days stay home, a bad local economy gets worse.
The Centers for Disease Control is advocating businesses to adopt flexible or nonpunitive leave policies to help combat the swine flu. We second that notion and would like to see it taken a step further.
If possible, we’d like to see all Lucas County businesses offer their employees three paid sick days during this flu season. It’s not for us to decide the mechanics of such a procedure, but if CEOs and company owners can find a way to make their employees feel better about staying home with the flu, they will in effect help to cure two ills that are plaguing our community.
Ben Konop
Lucas County Commissioner
Dr. David Grossman
Toledo-Lucas County Health Commissioner
Helen Writes a Similar letter, which wasn’t published:
Dear Working Men and Women of Lucas County:
As a nation and a region, we are battling uniquely difficult circumstances created by a harsh economic recession and a national health emergency — the spread of the H1N1 flu.
Call it a request or a suggestion, but to avoid having one problem compound the other here in Lucas County, we’d like all workers to be able to stay home when they’re sick with the flu.
It is recommended that all workers with influenza stay home until they are well, which is generally considered to be 24 hours without a fever without the use of aspirin, Motrin, etc. All told, those infected with H1N1 or “swine flu” could need several days to recover.
About 40 percent of all private-sector employees in the United States do not have paid sick days — or the ability to recover from illnesses like swine flu without losing chunks of income or their jobs in general. We don’t know exactly what that number is here in Toledo and Lucas County, but low-income and part-time employees typically do not have paid sick days, and about 23 percent of Toledo residents had incomes below the poverty level in 2007.
If a significant portion of our workforce continues to come to work for fear of losing income or even their jobs, this could result in many more colleagues, fellow workers, and employers becoming ill. This could turn a controllable situation into a major problem for a company.
And if those without paid sick days stay home, a bad local economy gets worse.
If possible, we’d like to see all Lucas County residents put aside a portion of their paycheck that they could live on in the event that they need sick days during this flu season. It’s not for us to decide the mechanics of such a procedure, but one suggestion might be to curtail unnecessary spending such at the newspaper or cable-TV subscription, cigarettes, sodas, processed and convenience foods.
If you do so, you will in effect help to cure two ills that are plaguing our community: H1N1 and the other illness that is even more deadly–the entitlement philosophy.
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