In a pandemic, US staff with out paid medical depart can’t afford a sick day | US information

TThe coronavirus pandemic has fueled the demand for paid sick leave for American workers in their workplaces as key workers not only run the risk of contracting the coronavirus but also lose two weeks of income if they test positive for the virus.

US workers get far fewer days off than workers in other major industrialized nations and work an average of four to eight hours more per week than the average worker in Europe. More than 32 million workers in the U.S. had no paid sick days prior to the pandemic, and low-wage workers were less likely to pay for sick leave and other benefits such as health insurance.

Esperanza Jimenez, a caretaker in the Miami area for an office cleaning company, lives with her son and three daughters and depends on their income to send money to her 90-year-old mother in Nicaragua.

While working as an essential worker during the pandemic, Jimenez contracted Covid-19 in late December 2020 and spent several days in the hospital. While she was sick, she received no sick pay from her employer as it was exempt from statutory vacation leave.

“I was worried about my bills because whether you’re sick or not, you still have to pay the bills,” Jimenez said. “When I left the hospital, I still had these terrible muscle aches all over my body, this terrible headache and a hoarseness in my throat, but I can’t miss a job because they won’t pay me for my days off.”

Although government measures such as the Cares Act and the American Rescue Plan Act have extended paid sick leave to millions of workers in the US, supporters of paid leave and workers are now pushing for a permanent solution as the US is the only great nation in the world without a Federal paid leave arrangements.

“We should have had this years ago,” said Dawn Huckelbridge, director of Paid Leave for All, a campaign by several organizations advocating state regulation of paid leave in medical and family matters.

“The pandemic has made it clear what a crisis this is. When the global pandemic broke out, we weren’t prepared and one of the first things Congress did was pass a law on fixed-term paid vacation, knowing it would save lives and jobs.

Veronica Gonzales has two jobs, one at Taco Bell and the other at the Jack in the Box fast food chain in Alameda, California. The pandemic struggled to get paid quarantine time off while her son was hospitalized for Covid-19 and recently even went to work sick.

“Working during the pandemic has been extremely stressful for us,” said Gonzales. “We have to work. We have to be paid and we cannot afford not to be paid.”

A campaign by blue-collar workers, business owners large and small, and activists has urged Congress to pass a federal policy on paid vacation, as well as fighting to enforce paid vacation locally.

Nija Phelps of Milford, Connecticut, an advocate of paid vacation for all, joined the campaign after she and her husband had to quit their jobs in 2013 and move to Michigan to care for their mother-in-law undergoing heart-recovering surgery . Neither of them had paid vacations to keep their jobs and income.

“Life was pretty much in the air. We didn’t really know what was going to happen. When it got stronger we felt better, but we all had struggles, ”Phelps said. “Not being supported by an employer or government is scary, cruel and really unnecessary because we know we can do it, not just because other countries have been doing it for decades, but there are viable plans and so many others. “States adopt it.”

Paid vacation guidelines have been issued in California, New York, Washington, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon, and the District of Columbia, and local ordinances have been issued in cities and counties in the United States.

Public transportation security officer Angel Maldonado urges that district contract workers in the Miami-Dade, Florida district be given paid sick leave.

In 2018, he returned to work shortly after surgery for prostate cancer. At work, he wore a catheter for two months, and it often leaked. Now he is due to have back surgery and fears that he will have to return to work while he is recovering because he cannot afford to live without the income.

“The situation was very difficult. I’m the only one working in the house and my wife, who is retired and has a disability, depends on me, ”said Maldonado. “That is not fair. We are human and have biological needs just like everyone else.”