A reluctant vote to make leave permanent

In April 2020, just weeks after COVID-19 descended upon San Francisco and a pandemic was declared, the Board of Supervisors and Mayor London Breed passed an emergency ordinance requiring all employers with more than 500 workers to provide two weeks of paid sick leave for employees who fell sick with the virus, needed to quarantine or were caring for infected family members. It was a vital piece of legislation that slowed COVID’s spread and allowed workers to care for themselves and their loved ones without worrying about losing income. Over the past two years, as the pandemic has dragged on, it’s been renewed half a dozen times.

Now, voters can make a version of this public health leave permanent on the June 7 ballot.

Under Proposition G, businesses in San Francisco with more than 100 employees would be mandated to provide up to two weeks of paid leave to their staff when a local or statewide public health emergency is declared. If passed, the protections would kick in Oct. 1 after the state discontinues its COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave program.

We’ve seen the difference protections like these have made across the world in keeping people safe. If only Prop. G had taken this important step and called it a day, we’d support it without reservation.

Unfortunately, it also includes an ill-conceived addition.

Under the measure, the 80 hours of extended sick leave would also apply to days with poor air quality. Employees who work “primarily outdoors” and who have diagnoses of heart or lung disease, respiratory problems, are pregnant or are over 60, would also be eligible for paid leave on days when a Spare the Air Alert is issued.

These alerts are put out by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District when the air quality index anywhere in the region reaches 100. But it’s a tool designed to discourage fireplace use and driving, not as a signifier of a public health emergency. We’re overdue in establishing workforce protection during climate emergencies. But this approach has serious flaws.

Because it’s a regional tool, Spare the Air is an imprecise measure of danger. If an alert is issued because wildfire smoke has drifted into Richmond, but San Francisco skies are clear, why should San Franciscobased workers be allotted paid time off ?

Moreover, the eligibility factor for workers whose jobs take place “primarily outside” is also vague. The Office of Labor Standards Enforcement would be charged with interpreting this language — but that process will invariably require messy negotiations. We can think of several professions where outdoor work is seasonal, intermittent or unpredictable (would servers at a restaurant with a parklet be eligible?).

As climate change increases and fire seasons get longer, this measure could have significant impacts on business still struggling with pandemic recovery. In 2020, the year wildfire smoke turned the sky orange in the Bay Area, there were 46 calendar days when Spare the Air Alerts were issued. (In 2021, when wildfire smoke largely stayed away from the Bay Area, only five alerts were issued, largely due to wood-burning smoke and vehicle exhaust.)

We would certainly empathize with any voter who rejects Prop. G out of principle. But we are begrudgingly offering our support because many public health experts have warned us about the danger of allowing essential sick and family leave protections to expire. While many want to believe the pandemic is over, COVID and its virus variants will be with us forever. Studies show that emergency sick leave slows the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, monoclonal antibody treatments with the potential to save lives and ease severe symptoms are still not widely available. Questions surrounding long COVID endure.

Letting the virus run rampant is in no one’s best interest. And giving workers the freedom to stay home when they’re sick, or to look after ill family members, protects the immune compromised and kids who are still too young to be vaccinated.

That the supervisors who crafted this bill, most notably Gordon Mar, put such a crucial public health measure in jeopardy by grafting on something so untested as a Spare the Air Alert sick day is frustrating. Something for voters to keep in mind in future elections.