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Democrats Encourage Albuquerque Voters To Support Paid Sick Leave

  Commentary: Albuquerque, N.M. – The Democratic Party of New Mexico (DPNM) stands with working families and today endorsed the paid sick leave measure which would protect workers from losing their jobs or pay when they or a family member is sick. According to Healthy Workforce ABQ there are 107,000 people in Albuquerque who do not have earned sick days, which means that employees and school children are more likely to go to work when ill, parents are losing pay to stay home with their sick children, and many workers are at risk of losing their jobs to take care of themselves and their family’s health.

 

“Democrats support policies that keep our families healthy and employed,” said Richard Ellenberg, Chair of DPNM. “The community has an opportunity to ensure Albuquerque workers are treated fairly, and we are encouraging voters to vote ‘yes’ on the paid leave ballot initiative. Keeping employees and families healthy makes good business sense--healthy families mean a healthy workforce.”

 

The ordinance would require employers in Albuquerque to meet the following requirements:

 

  • Employees must be allowed to take earned sick time for their own or a family member’s illness, injury, or medical care, or for absences related to domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.

  • Employees must be allowed to earn one hour of sick time per 30 hours worked.

  • If the employer has 40 or more employees it must allow employees to use 56 hours of earned sick time per year. Small employers must allow employees to use 40 hours of earned sick time per year.

 
The Democratic platform states in part:

 

“Democrats will make sure that the United States finally enacts national paid family and medical leave by passing a family and medical leave act that would provide all workers at least 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a new child or address a personal or family member’s serious health issue. We will fight to allow workers the right to earn at least seven days of paid sick leave. We will also encourage employers to provide paid vacation.”

 

You can learn more atHealthy Workforce ABQ.

 

For more information on the the Albuquerque election, please see DPNM’s ABQ Election Guide.