By contrast, when workers don\'t have paid sick leave--and most don\'t--they suffer retaliation from bosses up to and including firing when they take leave, advocates said.

The contrast came at a briefing for congressional aides by the National Partnership for Women and Families and the National Council of Women\'s Organizations. It included labor-backed organizations or allies, such as 9to5, ACORN and Young Workers United. They also spoke to a sympathetic audience.

The backing they garnered for paid sick leave legislation is only a beginning, as the measures--mandating that workers in any firms employing at least 15 people must offer one week of paid sick leave to full-time workers--were just introduced in Congress.

"This is not an issue that is going to go away, because a lot of policymakers" in Congress, legislatures and the media "don\'t know most people don\'t have paid sick leave," said 9to5 Executive Director Linda Mrcic. "Fewer people are paid the minimum wage than lack paid sick days," added ACORN Research Director Jen Kern.

To show the positive impact of paid sick leave, the groups pointed to San Francisco, where Young Workers United built a grass-roots movement for a paid sick leave referendum which voted the ordinance into law, over business opposition. A top worker of the city\'s enforcement office discussed its opening months.

Sonya Mehta, Young Workers United\'s co-director, called the ordinance "an opening to work the country for the cause of economic justice, and to make the country more fair and equitable for people who are really working for peanuts." Lack of sick leave, paid or unpaid, disproportionately affects working women and minorities, speakers said.

"We found it was a huge issue for working families" when the group surveyed workers, including immigrants, who are normally overlooked, before launching its campaign, she added. "Then we sat down and wrote the law, as low-wage workers," not lawyers, wanted it--such as barring employers from forcing sick workers to find replacements.

Young Workers United converted the paid sick leave campaign into a wider message, saying paid leave "is about workers\' rights" and human rights. Mehta said. Those are themes the labor movement uses in campaigning for the right to organize.

Once the ordinance passed, the city\'s pre-existing Office of Labor Standards Enforce-ment--maybe the only such city labor standards office in the U.S.--took over the job of informing employers and enforcing the mandatory city-wide law, said its senior analyst, Greg Asay. The ordinance took effect on Feb. 5, two months after voters approved it.

"We got flooded with calls from employers, asking, \'How does it work?\'" Asay said. Most were not even aware of the ordinance until the referendum passed. His office spent the ensuing months answering questions from employers on how to adjust their payroll records and employment systems in order to follow the details of both the ordinance and the regulations governing it.

Those regulations allow workers to take paid sick leave in as little as 1-hour segments, with appropriate notice. And San Francisco\'s paid sick leave, Mrcic said, "is concurrent with" current unpaid federal family and medical leave, of 12 weeks for workers in firms employing at least 50 people.

"Paid sick leave is for emergencies, such as the flu or dental work. Family and medical leave is for serious conditions," she added.

The federal paid sick leave legislation (HR 1542/S 910) was introduced earlier this year by Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.)--the crafter of the labor-backed Family and Medical Leave Act--and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).

But given its history, and the possibility of a GOP filibuster in the Senate, the advocates are also pushing paid leave bills in state legislatures and city councils, using San Francisco as a model, Kern said. Local paid sick leave campaigns have been launched in Madison, Wis., and Washington, D.C., while legislation has been introduced in Missouri, Minnesota, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida.

ACORN\'s campaigners are trying to get a statewide initiative for paid sick leave in Ohio and are writing draft bills in Maine, Vermont and North Carolina. "The Connecticut state senate passed it, but the house adjourned for this year" before considering it, Kern said.

This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.