School bus companies will have to provide paid sick leave for drivers if they expect to provide service in St. Paul beginning this fall.

The school board passed a requirement March 21 that, in essence, requires 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 20 hours a driver works in a given week. None of the private bus companies now contracting with the St. Paul school district provide drivers paid sick time, said Sarah Greenfield, community organizer for SEIU Local 284.

The union pushed the policy change as part of its Driving Up Standards initiative. Those standards try to improve working conditions for drivers and increase public accountability of bus companies.

None of the companies serving the St. Paul schools is unionized.

The lack of paid sick time presents difficult decisions for drivers, Greenfield said. "No one wants to compromise the safety of kids when they're sick and not at their best. But drivers are also trying to make ends meet."

Most drivers don't have health insurance, she said, which means that going to the doctor or buying prescriptions costs them extra out-of-pocket expenses. That's on top of losing a day's pay if they have to take the day off to do so.

School districts caught in middle
Sick time is one way to ensure that the tax money that pays for bus service helps provide decent jobs, rather than simply enriching the large bus companies that are increasingly dominating service in the state, she said.

The growing concentration of companies within the school bus industry ? First Student, for instance, covers about 80 percent of the routes in St. Paul ? makes it more difficult for school districts "to set their own standards and to make sure companies meet them," Greenfield said.

School districts fear ? with some justification, Greenfield said ? that if they impose too many standards on bus companies, the companies simply will not bid for business or sue the district over the provisions. That could leave the district without a provider or force them to pay more for the service they want.

It's not as easy as it should be, for example, for school boards to find out the experience level of drivers at companies that are bidding for district business, she said. Without specific recruitment and retention language in contracts, "it's hard for school districts to know what the turnover rate is in companies that they contract with, and how that affects services. We know anecdotally from parents that it's a big concern when their kids have as many as four or five different drivers a year."

That's part of the reason SEIU is pushing for standards statewide. Legislation sponsored by Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, would create an array of standards for school bus providers to meet. "A state law would make it even from district to district," Greenfield said, "so you don't have one district bravely leading the way, then suffering for that leadership."

Increasing reporting requirements
Dibble's bill (SF3383) includes reporting requirements about hiring and training practices; safety and experience records; and wages, benefits and working conditions. It provides job protections for drivers and other school personnel who may be displaced if a district privatizes its bus operations; prevents bus companies from using public money to oppose union organizing efforts by drivers and other workers; and gives districts more rights if bus companies suddenly refuse to bid for service. The bill is unlikely to pass in its entirety this session, Greenfield said, but it is possible that some provisions will be included in related legislation.

Having statewide standards also could minimize another potential impact of the new St. Paul policy, she said. The fact that First Student will have to explain to drivers why they get sick pay if they drive in St. Paul, but don't get sick pay if they drive in Minneapolis or other districts, is something for the bus company to deal with, Greenfield said.

But the St. Paul policy also makes it possible that more experienced drivers, who generally have the first choice in picking routes, would prefer to drive in St. Paul. That is something Minneapolis should be prepared for, she said.

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@stpaulunions.org