Employees should not have to sacrifice

... IT IS not the duty of employees to sacrifice for an employer when the employer is not willing to do the same for them.

The Chamber of Commerce articles (Sept. 17) on the (proposed) ordinance make it sound like its main purpose is to unfairly burden small businesses rather than give a benefit that employees of most bigger businesses and government agencies have long considered a basic right. It seems that owners of “small businesses” are almost candidates for sainthood lately. … In fact, I have worked for, known about, and heard about small-business owners who are petty tyrants, badly mistreating employees in their attempts to increase their income. This is a small minority, I hope, but to put all small-business owners on a pedestal as the foundation of our economic future is not the way forward. …

One of the … articles says this is going to be a boon to trial lawyers, who are going to bleed small-business owners to death if they haven’t “dotted the i’s or crossed the t’s in the mountain of paperwork required.” Please. I have read the ordinance. There is no “mountain of paperwork” required. If a smallbusiness-person already is not able to follow the rules, or hire someone to do it, or doesn’t possess the humanity to pay employees for sick days, or can’t survive as a business if they pay a few sick days, they shouldn’t be in business. … MARJORIE CROW Albuquerque