Paid sick day advocates deliver burritos to lawmakers

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by Marc Kovac

Capital Bureau Chief

Proponents of mandatory paid sick days for Ohio workers used a food-borne illness outbreak linked to a Kent burrito restaurant to lobby for their cause at the Statehouse April 29.

"A total of 432 people have been affected so far, and the number is still climbing," said Deb Steele, a member of the Ohio Paid Sick Days campaign, referring to the Chipotle incident recently. "Investigators have collected enough information to suspect that a norovirus brought to work by a sick employee may be the cause."

According to the campaign, the restaurant's employees and about 86 percent of service-sector workers do not have access to paid sick days, meaning they either report to their jobs when ill (and potentially infect others) or face unpaid days off.

The Ohio Paid Sick Days campaign (online at
www.sickdaysohio.org) initiated legislation, called the Ohio Healthy Families Act, that would require businesses with 25 or more workers to allow full-time employees to earn seven paid sick days per year.

The group collected about 270,000 signatures to place the issue before lawmakers, and an Ohio House committee has played host to a hearing on the bill. But it's clear that the bill will not move through the legislative process before a deadline in early May; the campaign is poised to collect the 121,000 additional voter signatures required to place the issue before voters in November.

On April 29, the campaign and MomsRising.org, a national nonprofit that supports the initiative, delivered burritos and statements of support from hundreds of Ohioans to House Speaker Jon Husted, Senate President Bill Harris and members of the House committee considering the legislation, urging them to pass the bill quickly.

"I am here today not only as a state legislator but also as a concerned mom, a concerned citizen and a concerned consumer," said Rep. Jennifer Brady, a Democrat from Westlake, who accepted a burrito and spoke during the press conference. "We are seeing more and more that the paid sick days are important to Ohio's public health and to its economy. Many of us in the Legislature are listening and do support the Ohio Health Families Act."

Marc Kovac is the Dix Newspapers Capital Bureau chief. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com.