Calls for mandatory paid sick leave are revived

After being scrapped in 2020, mandatory paid sick leave is once again on the agenda as lawmakers prepare to head back to Richmond this month.

The coronavirus pandemic has increased the urgency of legislative efforts to require Virginia employers to offer paid sick leave, according to one Hampton Roads supporter. However, business groups say a one-size-fitsall mandate would harm small businesses struggling to survive during this time.

Just one out of three workers in the Virginia service industry has access to paid sick leave, according to analysis of worker data from the Shift Project.

In 2020, Democrats in Richmond pushed for making more employers provide the benefit. They passed different versions of a sick leave bill, but after some lawmakers objected to providing the benefit to part-time workers, the legislation died in March. That

bill, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, would have required a week of sick leave each year at companies with 15 or more employees.

At least one lawmaker plans to revive the issue during the upcoming session. Rep. Elizabeth Guzman, D-Dale City, plans to reintroduce a bill filed in 2020 that would have required sick leave for employers with six or more workers, according to her website.

The pandemic has placed many additional pressures on front line workers who need paid sick leave, said Jonathan Williams, a spokesman for United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400, which represents more than 1,200 grocery and food manufacturing workers in Hampton Roads.

“Even without a pandemic going on, no one should be forced to come to work sick,” Williams said.

Even though some businesses provide sick leave, Williams said workers were still at the whim of their employers. He said some employers even require a positive COVID test before they allow sick leave days to be taken — workers can be stuck at home for days not getting paid while they wait for test results.

Pro-business groups have spoken out against the measure, saying small businesses would be harmed by strict requirements.

“They know the challenges of finding and keeping good employees and offer the highest wages and best benefits packages they can afford,” said Nicole Riley, Virginia director of the National Federal of Independent Businesses, in a news release. “But a cookie-cutter approach to paid leave makes it exceptionally difficult when every small business is different.”

Riley also cited an NFIB-commissioned survey that found that 73 percent of small business owners offer their full-time employees paid time off and 67 percent offer two weeks or more of leave.

Emily Hasty, executive director, government affairs for the Hampton Roads Chamber, said her organization was extremely concerned about imposing additional mandates on small business owners during the pandemic.

“We are grateful to be included in discussions about this legislation and hope we can continue to have an open dialogue on this and other important business issues,” Hasty said in an emailed statement.

Lawmakers will return to Richmond for the 2021 session on Jan. 13.