Should All Companies Be Required To Have Mandatory Sick Pay For All Employees?
Corey Silva
BCOM275
February 18th, 2013

Should All Companies Be Required To Have Mandatory Sick Pay For All Employees?
Sick Pay has been a hot topic in the news. With multiple cities and even an entire state putting regulations into effect it increases in popularity. Does it benefit employees to have this as a mandate? Does it put too much of an impact on companies? With documentation on current laws, implementation processes, and effects of implementation one is able to weigh the pros with the cons. Is simply having FMLA in place enough? Is it a policy that is too easy abused?
The FMLA entitles eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave each year for specified family and medical reasons. The FMLA applies to all government workers and private sector employers that employ 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius (Barth, S. & Hayes, D. K. 2009). Having this particular benefit, allows for employees to take time off in order to care for loved ones. This also guarantees the employee will not lose their job. Besides sick time, having additional benefits such as FMLA can help the employee deal with any family emergency. To be eligible for these benefits, an employee must have worked for an employer for a total of 12 months (not necessarily consecutively) and must have worked for the organization at least 1,250 hours in the past 12 months. These employees are generally guaranteed their current job, or one equal to it, on their return. If, however, an organization can show that it will suffer significant economic damage by having a “key” employee out on FMLA leave, the organization may deny the leave (DeCenzo, D. A. & Robbins, S. P. 2007). There are some guidelines to taking FMLA, and for good reasons. In order to take the FMLA benefit, the employee will need to have worked in the workplace for some time. This of course, is different from regular sick days, as it allows for the employee to take a total of 12 weeks off with job security. As the passage states, employers do have the option to deny FMLA due to business needs.
Being able to call in sick should be granted to all employees due to the unpredictability of sickness. Having the option to stay at home to care for yourself or a child plays a significant role on whether or not you will overcome the sickness. In addition, going to work sick will not only reduce productivity, but also there is a possibility of you infecting your coworkers. This is a fact all employers need to realize. If they do not allow an employee to call in sick, then the whole workforce can potentially suffer from the illness, leaving work unfinished. Calling in sick for the employee is hard to abuse as it is a daily occurrence. Sometimes the employee will need additional days to get well, but this can be justified with a doctors note. No one wants to be sick, but when it happens, having the option to call in sick to get better is an option all employees should have to get well.
Author (year) broke down the benefits and current standards:
Paid sick leave benefits allow workers to take time off for illness and have been shown to help increase worker productivity and reduce the spread of disease within a company and community. Although there is no federal legal requirement that employers provide paid sick leave benefits, 73 percent of full-time private industry workers in the United States were provided with paid sick leave plans in 2009. Paid sick leave may be provided by the employer in a number of ways. (“Paid Sick Leave: Prevalence, Provision, and Usage among Full-Time Workers in Private Industry,” 2012, para.)
This goes to show us why it is so important that employers give sick leave to their employees. There are many ways that employers can offer their employees sick leave. One example is “Fix number of days off a year”. For example, a worker may get 12 days of sick leave at the start of the year to be used at any time during the year. Alternatively, the employer may allow the worker to accumulate days based on time worked. For example, the worker may get 1 day of sick leave for every month worked. Another way is called an as needed plan. It is where employers can offer no limits to the number of sick day are offered. This can also be abused and must be monitored closely. The next one is called a consolidated leave plan. In this plan, multiple forms of leave are combined into one plan. An example of such a plan is one in which workers are given 4 weeks of leave for vacation and illness or disability, and the workers can allocate days between these various uses as they choose.
As business leaders we must be aware of the productivity related cost and burden imposed by certain health and disease conditions. Having employees come to work when they are sick can either slow down productivity or stop it. Would you want to work next to an employee that is coughing and spreading an illness which can make you sick and now you are out also. As we sometimes work in close quarters it is easy for us to get sick off of each other. We also need to be aware of environmental problems. If an employee sits at a computer each day over and over again and is not sitting correctly than this can cause carpal tunnel syndrome. Or if an employee looks at a computer screen for too long they can get vertigo. Also the stress of a job can have an effect on productivity and employees. Regardless of the prevalence of estimated use, the conditions that continue to have the greatest impact on presenteeism costs were arthritis, hypertension, depression and headaches.
There are many politicians who have tried to convince Congress that mandatory sick paid leave should be a requirement for businesses that have fifteen or more employees (Sherk, 2007). The law should facilitate how workers can have the flexibility to balance their work and family lives but forcing a company to give their employees would result in the reduction of employee control (Sherk, 2007). There are eight-two percent of employers who already provide sick leave or some form of paid time off (Sherk, 2007). If Congress did require employers to pay sick leave then those employers would not increase workers’ total compensation (Sherk, 2007). Looking at this increase would affect the amount of compensation they provide as sick leave and in turn they would decrease other types of benefits or wages and that would leave workers’ total compensation unchanged (Sherk, 2007).
While sick leave is a great benefit, it also encourages some employees to abuse this benefit that is given to them (Sherk, 2007). There are some employees out there that take advantage of this benefit and even misuse it. Some individuals tend to call in just to take a day off and then are lost when it is time to return to the workplace. If you take off time from your workplace that is not necessary then it will cause other employees to pick u your slack at work, and that just would not be fair. If you are in a position that does not require you to have a co-worker who knows your job, then you really should be at work when you are scheduled and do not abuse the privileges that you have been given. It is understandable that certain circumstances come about, but it is how you handle that dilemma with your employer. If you are an individual who abuses the sick leave you have obtained, then maybe you need to reconsider the position you are in and take a look at your co-workers and how they have to suffer and pick your slack as well.
The employers who do provide the benefits of sick leave do not normally allow their sick leave benefits to be cashed out and it has been brought up to Congress for them to allow this benefit as well (Sherk, 2009). If Congress allowed workers to cash in such benefits would give the workers control as to how they receive those benefits (Sherk, 2009).
So how do you decide which side to be on, for the employee or for the employer? FMLA offers employees coverage for up to 12 weeks of sick leave. This is great protection for any employee having a long-term illness, but what about a short-term illness, or a “key” employee. Should it be as easy as calling in sick and giving no other information? Or should there be a requirement to declare additional information? There may be the ability to pass a law, but it opens up the ability for abuse by employees. Is it as easy as setting a limit to the amount of sick leave a person can use in a year? Leaving it open-ended may be better for the employees, but to avoid abuse incentives should be in place for example allowing employees to be paid out at the end of the year for any used sick time. Can an employee calling in sick effect moral or even productivity levels? Coming in when you are truly sick can lower other employee’s moral simply from having to work next to someone who is sick. The sick employees will also lower their own productivity levels. It is simply not possible to work to your fullest ability when they are not at their best health. Putting these laws in place will greatly increase an employers production in the long run, so long as the laws contain checks to keep the employees and employers in balance.

Reference
Sherk, J. (2007, May 15). The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2007/05/congress-should-consider-alternatives-to-mandatory-paid-sick-leave Barth, S. & Hayes, D. K. (2009). Hospitality Law. Managing legal issues in the hospitality industry. John Wiley & Sons Inc. (3rd ed.). Retrieved from University of Phoenix library

DeCenzo, D. A. & Robbins, S. P. (2007). Fundamentals of Human Resource Management. John Wiley & Sons. (9th ed.) Retrieved from University of Phoenix library

Addendum Although we already know that laws regarding work rights differ very much between The United States and China. Are we in a place or position to determine which is the correct way to treat employees and regulations for employers? The US has put regulations in place for hours worked before the employees are compensated for the work above that, where as China has not. It goes to show how much stricter it is in The US. So although it may be easy to put these laws in to action in The US, it would be much more difficult put the same laws into place in a place that does not put the same values on employees, like China. Given China’s political stance, citizens and employees do not have a say in working conditions. Every single one of the workers is living through life like a clock. They work, they get off, they go to sleep. And the next day, they repeat the same thing again (Businessinsider.com). China’s workforce do have some medical benfits but nothing like the US benefits. Individuals in China can access an Individual Medical Account to pay for regular medical expenses, critical illness co-payment, and also any hospital stay. They also have access to a Pooled Public Medical Funds to assist in paying for any hospitalization and critical illness treatment (hr-china.com).

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-shocking-conditions-inside-chinas-brutal-foxconn-factory-2010-5#ixzz2LGjc6Bqn

http://www.hr-china.com/2011/04/12/employee-benefits-in-china/