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CALIFORNIA BUSINESS GROUP DISPUTES OHIO CHAMBER ON PAID SICK DAYS
San Francisco Restaurant Association Calls New Law "Successful"
Hartford, Conn.....An Associated Press wire story released nationally today reports that a spokesperson for a major business association in San Francisco regards the paid sick day law enacted in that city as "successful."
Kevin Westlye, Executive Director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association which represents 900 San Francisco restaurants, said:
"There's been some concern that employees are abusing the ordinance. There's been a little bit of that, but not as widespread as people thought at the beginning."
The story also quotes Westlye as saying "the law has been successful."
Westlye's comments are especially interesting because the Golden Gate Restaurant Association is a member of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce is fiercely opposing the Ohio Healthy Families Act, in part because it says there is likely to be widespread cheating by workers who call in sick when they aren't. National statistics, however, have shown that among workers who currently have paid sick days, over half (54%) never use even a single day during the course of an average year.
Dale Butland, communications director for Ohioans for Healthy Families, said:
"The Ohio Chamber's claim that passage of the OHFA will lead to widespread lying and cheating among employees is simply not borne out by the facts ---either nationally or now among businesses that actually have experience with paid sick day legislation. Is the Chamber willing to concede that it's doomsday, the-sky-is-going-to-fall predictions are false? Or do they really expect us to believe Ohio workers are less honest than workers in San Francisco?
No wonder polls consistently show 70% of Ohioans support paid sick days ---and that the Quinnipiac poll reported this month that Ohioans 'aren't buying' the arguments and scare tactics of executives who have paid sick days themselves, but want to deny them to everyone else."
The full AP story can be read at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080820/ap_on_bi_ge/paid_sick_days
