They are at it again. The government now is trying to decide whether or not to guarantee a maximum of five paid sick days for employees sent home or directed to stay home because their employer believes they have, or have been in close contact with a person who has, symptoms of a contagious illness, specifically, the Swine Flu, I mean the H1N1 virus.

Meant to help control the spread of the H1N1 flu virus, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, and the chair of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee, announced the introduction of the emergency temporary legislation. The introduction of the Emergency Influenza Containment Act comes just as President Obama declared the H1N1 flu to be a national emergency last month.

The concern is that workers will not stay home even if they have a contagious illness, if they do not get paid for the time they take off from work. Currently, federal law doesn’t require employers to provide workers with paid sick leave.

If the Act is passed in its current form, it would cover both full- and part-time workers, on a pro-rated basis, in businesses with 15 or more employees. The amount of paid sick leave would be calculated based on an employee’s regular rate of pay and the number of hours that the employee would otherwise be normally scheduled to work.

The sick leave is available for contagious illnesses, including influenza-like illnesses. If you already give your employees at least five paid sick days, you would be exempt from having to provide additional days. If passed this provisions would take effect 15 days after being signed into law and would expire after two years.

The House Education and Labor Committee was scheduled to hold a hearing on the Emergency Influenza Containment Act during the week of November 16, 2009. Whether the bill becomes law remains to be seen…

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