A paid break from work

Edward Kennedy wants to require employers to hand out 7 days of paid sick leave every year. Is this a good proposal or a bad one?

Spectator sports can be hazardous to your health. At least, they can be when the government requires paid sick leave.

Short-term sick leave use among Swedish men rose 55 percent during the 2002 World Cup soccer finals. In Sweden the government provides generous sick-leave benefits. So generous that at any given moment, one in 10 Swedish workers collects them. Most of these “sick” workers tell pollsters they’re perfectly healthy — they just wanted a paid break from work.

Now Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., wants the government to require American companies to provide paid sick leave. More than four out of every five employers voluntarily provide paid sick leave or other forms of paid time off, but Sen. Kennedy wants to make this widespread practice mandatory. He has introduced legislation requiring all firms employing 15 or more workers to allow seven days of paid sick leave a year and preventing them from disciplining workers for taking those days off work.

Larger employers already offer paid sick time as part of a benefits package. The small town Ma and Pa pizza parlors that employ 17 people will suffer because of this stupid proposal.

Companies would respond to the additional paid sick-leave costs the same way they have responded every other time the government required them to provide a specific benefit — by cutting wages or reducing other benefits. Sen. Kennedy’s bill would force workers to take a pay cut to fund more paid vacation days, rather than letting workers choose how to trade off income and time off work themselves.

Allowing employees to determine how they manage their money, work hours and shifts is something the government Edward Kennedy dreams of, would take away. After all, the Nanny state knows best.

Human nature being what it is, Sen. Kennedy’s bill would invite abuse. It would not allow companies to challenge medical certifications, or to discipline employees for feigning illness. Experience with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which requires unpaid sick leave, suggests that many employees would use the law to justify skipping work with little or no notice.

Yes. This is exactly what will happen. Work gets in the way of fun, on a nice sunny hot day when we would rather be at the lake. The costs of mandates such as this are too high.

The losers would be co-workers and customers. Most companies cannot find replacement workers on short notice, so they must reassign absent employees' work to co-workers. This penalizes workers who show up for work each day.

Work a shift or two in nursing when others decide not to come to work. It sucks. And it places our customers, patients, at risk. Sure, the local donut shop and McDonalds probably can get by but not without increasing the cost of it's products. In the end, workers and customers lose out on this.

Liberals never think through some of their ideas.

XPosted @ ARS