http://www.clasp.org/issues/rss/topic_highlights.xml?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0001 Featured Highlights from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) en-us Sat, 25 May 2013 19:34:18 -0500 info@clasp.org webmaster@clasp.org 40 Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CLASP-Workforce-Ed-Mark-Up-April-16-to-Committee-April-15.pdf As the Committee on Education and the Workforce considers The Working Families Flexibility Act (H.R. 1406) sponsored by Representative Martha Roby (R-AL), CLASP urges the Committee not to move measure forward. A mission of the Committee is to protect the workforce; the bill would add a new wage rule that raises the specter of greater vulnerability for the non-exempt workforce. Since enforcement of basic wage rules is woefully under resourced, we need to fix that first. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/CLASP-Workforce-Ed-Mark-Up-April-16-to-Committee-April-15.pdf Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/resources_and_publications/publication?id=1228&list=publications Getting Down to Business is a CLASP monthly update on the latest news about business and paid leave. http://www.clasp.org/resources_and_publications/publication?id=1228&list=publications Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Earned-Paid-Sick-Time-Business-Questionnaire_MA_3_27_13.pdf http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Earned-Paid-Sick-Time-Business-Questionnaire_MA_3_27_13.pdf Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/SF-Implementation-Brief-FINAL.pdf Implementing a new law is always a complex process. But what happens when you are the first jurisdiction in the country to pass such a law? This was the unique challenge facing San Francisco when it passed the nation's first earned sick days law in 2006. The City and County government took on the challenge admirably, employing a variety of creative strategies to conduct outreach to the public, write meaningful rules, and ensure the law would be properly enforced. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/SF-Implementation-Brief-FINAL.pdf Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Business-Voices-on-Ease-of-Implementation-of-Sick-Days-DC-and-SF.pdf Around the nation, city councils and state legislatures are increasingly considering legislation to establish a sick daysaEUR(TM) law. Employers, particularly those who are not familiar with sick daysaEUR(TM) policy, are leery of administering it. For some, this worry leads them to oppose passage of legislation. However, in locations where laws are already implemented, many businesses have stepped forward to acknowledge that administering sick daysaEUR(TM) policy is actually pretty simple. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Business-Voices-on-Ease-of-Implementation-of-Sick-Days-DC-and-SF.pdf Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.clasp.org/resources_and_publications/publication?id=1215&list=publications Getting Down to Business is a CLASP monthly update on the latest news about business and paid leave. http://www.clasp.org/resources_and_publications/publication?id=1215&list=publications Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.clasp.org/issues/in_focus?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0063 Today, CLASP and its partner, the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC), released a new tool for job quality advocates, including advocates for earned sick days and paid family leave. The jointly produced brief provides advocates with a primer on the nuts and bolts of the business certification movement and suggests ways to foster fruitful relationships between the movement and campaigns for improved job quality, such as earned sick days campaigns. http://www.clasp.org/issues/in_focus?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0063 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Seattle-Sick-Days-Implementation-CLASP.pdf Advocates in Seattle fought hard to build the support necessary to pass the cityaEUR(TM)s Paid Sick and Safe Time (PSST) Ordinance. But the hard work did not end when the law passed in September 2011. Once the ink on SeattleaEUR(TM)s ordinance had dried, the process of implementing the law began. http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Seattle-Sick-Days-Implementation-CLASP.pdf Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.clasp.org/issues/pages?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0024 While many people assume that paid sick days are widely available to all, that is far from the truth for too many workers. This critical workplace protection is important both to workers and consumers. A new poll demonstrates that restaurants that do not offer their employees the opportunity to earn paid sick days do so at their own peril. The survey, put out by the National Consumers League (NCL), found that 92 percent of consumers believe that it is very important or important that the servers and cooks in the restaurants they patronize do not cook or serve while sick. Well over half of respondents agreed on the importance of allowing these workers to earn paid sick days. With consumers expressing a clear preference for fair sick leave policies, the message to business owners is also clear: to satisfy customers, employers must provide restaurant workers with just working conditions, including earned sick days. Policymakers should take note as well. http://www.clasp.org/issues/pages?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0024 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.clasp.org/issues/pages?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0023 On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration proposed two broad new food safety rules, marking the first major food safety rulemaking since the 1930s. These rules are a major step forward for consumer safety. However, policymakers should take note that a major gap in labor protections for workers who handle our food continues to imperil the safety of our food system: most farmworkers and restaurant workers, as well as other food chain workers, receive no earned sick days, which means many are forced to come to work when sick. This lack of protections is not only unfair to workers, but also 1) dangerous for consumers, who risk infection and illness when they eat food handled by sick workers, 2) bad for businesses, and 3) harmful to the U.S. economy. http://www.clasp.org/issues/pages?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0023 Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.clasp.org/resources_and_publications/publication?id=1202&list=publications#ASBC Getting Down to Business is a CLASP monthly update on the latest news about business and paid leave. http://www.clasp.org/resources_and_publications/publication?id=1202&list=publications#ASBC Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.clasp.org/issues/pages?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0022 Add one more piece of evidence to the increasingly-difficult-to-ignore body of facts that suggests earned sick days aEUR" particularly for lower-wage workers aEUR" are crucial to our countryaEUR(TM)s economic success and familiesaEUR(TM) economic security. A new study by health economist J. Paul Leigh shows that the economic cost of workplace injuries among low-wage workers amounted to more than $39 billion in 2010. The high cost of workplace injuries among low-wage workers is particularly striking in light of recent research demonstrating that there is a significant correlation between lack of paid sick leave and the incidence of nonfatal occupational injuries. http://www.clasp.org/issues/pages?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0022 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/issues/in_focus?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0016 The USWCC understands that paid sick days are good for business and that often women-owned businesses are uniquely situated to support paid sick days. http://www.clasp.org/issues/in_focus?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0016 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/issues/in_focus?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0017 The Cry Wolf Project sets out to demonstrate that so-called liberal policies such as FMLA do not yield the dire consequences that business opposition so readily predicts. http://www.clasp.org/issues/in_focus?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0017 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/issues/in_focus?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0015 Paid sick days increase the ability of low-income workers to take time off for preventative care. As the nation implements health care reform, including increasing coverage for preventative care, it should think about paid sick days as a key issue to enable workers to access this care. http://www.clasp.org/issues/in_focus?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0015 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.clasp.org/issues/in_focus?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0014 As a local paid sick days bill moves through the New York City Council, it is important to listen to voices like Rosanne Martino, who manages an upscale New York restaurant that supports providing paid sick days to workers. http://www.clasp.org/issues/in_focus?type=work_life_and_job_quality&id=0014