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April 26, 2012
The Case for Earned Sick Time
As business owners, women want to offer good benefits, but they are often at an unfair disadvantage without a minimum standard in place. When they do decide to offer fair wages and benefits, they run the risk of being undercut by the competition. The U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce strongly and enthusiastically endorses the earned sick time legislation because it supports small businesses, benefits workers and encourages an equitable workplace for women across the Commonwealth.
April, 25, 2012
Dunkin' Donuts Protest Calls for Sick Days
NEW BEDFORD — A dozen protesters clad in bright orange T-shirts marched and chanted in front of Dunkin' Donuts on Kempton Street today, calling for that corporation and others to provide workers with earned sick time.
April 2, 2012
Mass. Needs Sick Leave Mandate
For the nearly 1 million Massachusetts workers and their families, proper health care is largely out of reach. That's because they don't have basic, paid sick days - and it means higher costs for them, their employers and our communities.

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Chamber should rethink its position on sick leave

By Steven Cole of Eastham / Cape Cod Times / November 25, 2011

The head of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce is quoted in a front-page Nov. 19 report as being opposed to a bill pending in the Legislature to require seven days' paid sick leave.

I understand the chamber's concern about new requirements on businesses, but this bill seems so clearly in the public interest — providing tangible benefits to employers and employees alike — that the opposition makes no sense. What worker wants to come to work only to find a colleague sneezing and coughing? What parent wants to send a child to day care or school to find other kids' spreading their illnesses? Why would an employer want a worker to come to work only to stand a good chance of infecting other workers and bringing down productivity?

Yet this is exactly what happens today for 1 million private-sector workers who do not get any paid sick leave and another half million who can't take leave when their child is ill, most of whom cannot afford to lose a day of pay.
I am thankful that Sen. Wolf and others are pushing hard to get this bill enacted, and I urge the chamber to reconsider its position and look at the bigger public health picture.

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111125/OPINION/111250308/-1/NEWSMAP