Workplace Safety and Earned Sick Days: Intersections and Opportunities for Advocacy
Mar 19, 2013 | Jodie Levin-Epstein
DOWNLOAD ALTERNATIVE FORMATS: Download Audio | Additional PDF
Around the country, advocates are campaigning for laws that will enable workers to earn paid sick days. Already, the cities of San Francisco and Seattle, the District of Columbia, and the state of Connecticut, have passed earned sick days laws. The need for these laws is pressing: 40 percent of American workers lack access to sick days. Health concerns related to the lack of paid sick days often focus on the spread of disease. However, another serious public health implication is less well known: worker safety. A recent study found that workers with paid sick leave were 28 percent less likely than those without leave to be injured on the job.
This national audio conference discusses the intersections between worker safety issues and earned sick days policies. This audio conference aims to bring together advocates from both the earned sick days and worker safety communities. We will explore ways this new data can be effectively deployed and consider how our movements can work together to make jobs safer and healthier for all workers.
Speakers:
Liz Borkowski, Research Associate in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health at the George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services
Wendy Chun-Hoon, D.C. Director, Family Values @ Work
Tom O'Connor, Executive Director, National Council for Occupational Health and Safety
Barbara Rahke, Director, Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety and Health
Resources:
RESEARCH
- Paid Sick Leave and Nonfatal Occupational Injuries: Abay Asfaw, Regina Pana-Cryan, and Roger Rosa; NIOSH
- Mom's off Work'Cause She Got Hurt: The Economic Impact of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses in the U.S.'s Growing Low-Wage Workforce; Liz Borkowski & Celeste Monforton
- Numbers and Costs of Occupational Injury and Illness in Low-Wage Occupations; J. Paul Leigh
- Earned Sick Days Campaigns: National Partnership on Women and Families state and local map