Name: Pandemic intensifies paid sick leave debate in Virginia as new session draws near
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Pandemic intensifies paid sick leave debate in Virginia as new session draws near

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This article was published more than&nbsp;2 years agoCommentGift ShareRICHMOND — When the General Assembly reconvenes next month, lawmakers will resume their battle over whether to require employers to offer paid sick leave — a debate colored by both the coronavirus pandemic and the 2021 governor's race.About 1.2&nbsp;million Virginians have no paid sick time or family leave, according to a November study by , which tracks data from hourly service workers. Some Democrats in the state legislature have pushed for years to make most employers provide the benefit, which the .Advocates point to employees such as Joshua Briere, who has worked in Richmond restaurants for years while putting himself through college, never with the benefit of paid sick leave. He says he has gone to work at times while under the weather because he couldn’t afford to stay home.“You’re looking at your bills; I’ve got rent to pay,” said Briere, 22, a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University. “You’re like, ‘I’m going to take some DayQuil’ ” and carry on.Advocates nearly pulled off a victory early this year, when the Democratic-controlled House and Senate passed slightly different versions of a paid sick leave bill. Then some conservative Senate Democrats balked at offering the benefit to part-time workers.AdvertisementThe legislation died in the Senate in March, just as the state was recording its first cases of the . Nine months later, some say the pandemic has made the issue more urgent than ever, noting that many who lack paid sick leave — such as grocery and fast-food workers — earn low wages and do not have the option to work remotely.“Many of them are the front-line jobs that keep this country running in the pandemic,” said Del. Elizabeth R. Guzman (D-Prince William). “No one should have to choose between their health and a paycheck.”But others are wary of imposing new burdens on businesses already struggling amid the economic crisis brought on by the health emergency.State Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax City) was on board with paid leave for full-time workers in March but now worries about imposing a new mandate on businesses.Advertisement“People were forced to work in very difficult times and put themselves at risk, and I completely sympathize and respect that, and they deserve protection,” he said. “And by the same token, if you just apply this in a blanket fashion, you’re just going to drive more small businesses out of business. Instead of offering somebody paid leave, you may cost them a job.”During the regular General Assembly session early this year, Democrats mostly agreed on requiring public- and private-sector employers to provide five days of earned, paid sick leave per year. But they disagreed on which businesses to exempt.Bills backed by Gov. Ralph Northam (D) would have applied to employers with at least 25 workers. Guzman’s bill put the number at six. The measure that advanced the furthest, from Sen. Barbara A. Favola (D-Arlington), would have covered those with at least 15 workers.AdvertisementA compromise effort — to offer 10 days of paid leave if employees or their relatives were stricken with the coronavirus — failed during a marathon special legislative session that ran from summer to fall.Advocates have not given up hope that the issue could gain traction in the session that begins Jan.&nbsp;13, particularly with support for paid sick leave from Northam and all four Democrats running in the party’s 2021 gubernatorial primary — former governor , , Del. (Prince William) and state Sen. (Richmond).The Republican gubernatorial candidates — (Colonial Heights) and Sen. (Chesterfield) — voted against paid leave.“If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s the importance of staying home when you’re sick,” said Kim Bobo, executive director of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, which is part of a coalition called that formed this year to advance the issue.AdvertisementMark Smith, owner of five Midas stores in central Virginia, said he will continue to advocate paid family leave, a policy that he says has helped his stores attract and retain “good people.” He offers a minimum of 13 paid days off to his 43 employees — all mechanics and managers. The average tenure at his locations is between eight and nine years, he says, compared with the industry average of 2½ years.“I understand the argument that you can’t afford to do it, because they’re the ones out in the bays, fixing the cars,” he said. “I think there’s an equally compelling argument that you can’t afford not to do it.”But business groups remain strongly opposed.“It could be a pretty burdensome cost,” said Nicole Riley, Virginia state director at the National Federation of Independent Business. “The main concern for our small-business owners, any mandate that sets out specifics on how they are to provide paid sick leave — whether it’s in normal times or a pandemic — it reduces their flexibility to address the current situation that works the best for them and their employees.”AdvertisementLegislators who intend to promote paid sick leave in the coming session were still working out the details of their bills last week.Guzman, who is running for lieutenant governor in 2021, plans to sponsor a measure that would apply to businesses with at least 26 employees.“When I first came to America as a single mother, I was working three jobs, and I did not have paid sick leave,” said Guzman, a Peruvian immigrant who worked at a Wendy’s, CVS and a department store. “I sometimes had to make the difficult decision to leave my sick child at home [alone] so I could make the rent.”Favola was pursuing two bills that were much more modest in scope. One would require employers that already offer paid sick leave to allow workers to use up to five of those days for family leave — meaning they could use the time to care for a sick family member, not just to recover from an illness of their own.Advertisement“To be honest, most companies are already doing this, but I want to make a statement in statute: If you’ve already figured out how to pay for sick leave, they’ve got to let the employee decide how to use it,” Favola said.Favola’s other bill calls on the state to study a type of private insurance that would provide 12 weeks of paid family leave. Those plans, sold in other states but not authorized in Virginia, work much like private health insurance and could be structured “however the employer wants to shape it,” she said. The employer could opt to cover part of the premium, for example, or just offer the plan as something workers can opt to buy into. It’s possible that the state would want to offer a tax credit to companies that cover that cost or share it with workers, she said.“I’m very conscious right now where the economy is — one’s a study, one makes a statement,” she said of her bills. “I think most people have agreed we’ve got to move the ball forward.”CommentsGift ArticleTOP STORIESGoing GlobalEssential reporting and analysis from correspondents around the world.Try a different topic or to save your preferences

This article was published more than&nbsp;2 years agoCommentGift ShareRICHMOND — When the General Assembly reconvenes next month, lawmakers will resume their battle over whether to require employers to offer paid sick leave — a debate colored by both the coronavirus pandemic and the 2021 governor's race.About 1.2&nbsp;million Virginians have no paid sick time or family leave, according to a November study by , which tracks data from hourly service workers. Some Democrats in the state legislature have pushed for years to make most employers provide the benefit, which the .Advocates point to...

Pandemic intensifies paid sick leave debate in Virginia as new session draws near

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