Unpaid Sick Days Leave Parents With Tough Choices During Flu Season

Parents without paid time off scramble to care for sick children.

ByABC News
October 7, 2009, 4:01 PM

Oct. 7, 2009— -- Brian and Suzi Milbee say they are praying the swine flu stays away this winter and their three children stay healthy.

"If the kids get sick, I can't take off from work," Suzi Milbee said. "We're parents, we're not allowed to be sick.

"There's a lot of times I wish I could call out of work, but you know you have to buck up and go to work sick," she said.

Brian Milbee is a butcher, and his wife works for the military, and they're heading into the winter flu season with no more paid sick days.

"If they get the swine flu, let them all get it at the same time, because that would help out with the leave," Suzi Milbee said.

Their plan is to call in sick anyway and suffer the consequences. They hope they hold onto their jobs.

"Who's to say they don't have someone else lined up right behind you, for your job, that doesn't have kids?" Brian Milbee said.

Critics say it's a fatal flaw in the government's fight against swine flu -- encouraging working parents to stay home when an estimated 54 million Americans don't get a single paid sick day.

"This is a health crisis. Paid sick days is a really important health issue among low wage workers who have the most interaction with the public -- food service workers, childcare workers," said Linda Meric, executive director of the 9-5 National Association of Working Women.

"Up to 80 percent or more of those workers don't have access to paid sick days," Meric said. "If their children are sick, they're put in the position of having them stay home by themselves or sending them to school sick."

In San Francisco, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., local laws guarantee every worker up to nine paid sick days a year. But small businesses have protested, saying the new rules cost them tens of thousands of dollars.

Supporters of mandatory sick days say the government is kidding itself if it thinks American families can fight swine flu or any other public health crisis without sick leave for all Americans.

"These people are people who live paycheck to paycheck. So not getting a paycheck that day means they might not be able to feed their children that evening," said Deborah Leff, president of the Public Welfare Foundation.