NELP Applauds Paid Sick Days and Paid Leave Bill That Rises to the Moment

Following is a statement from Rebecca Dixon, executive director of the National Employment Law Project:

“We commend Senators Patty Murray and Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Rosa DeLauro for introducing a paid sick days and universal paid leave bill that not only rises to the moment before us but makes permanent paid sick and paid leave provisions that should have been law decades ago.

“The COVID-19 pandemic demands our full-throttled response to protect workers and families from the severe financial consequences of illness, quarantines, and inability to go to work because of the pandemic. Ensuring that workers are paid when they need to stay home to tend to illness or to comply with quarantines and social distancing is a public health imperative.

“We are rightly urged to stay home and maintain strict social distancing so we can ‘flatten the curve’ of coronavirus, but we cannot as a society meaningfully accomplish this without universal and robust paid sick and paid leave. We are far past the time when these provisions should have been made law. Every day that Congress delays passing these essential reforms only worsens the public health emergency upon us.

“Congress and the administration must do the right thing—do what needs to be done—for the sake of our nation. Listen to the American people, and pass these provisions, now!”

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