UPI en Español  |   UPI Asia  |   About UPI  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Desperate employees come to work sick

|
 
Published: Nov. 3, 2009 at 7:52 AM

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Employees who do not get paid for sick days are reporting to work ill, raising fears they could be spreading the H1N1 flu virus, U.S. health officials say.

Workers who deal with the public, such as waiters and child care employees, often come in to their jobs sick because they can't afford to miss the pay -- a workforce that includes tens of millions of American employees -- and health officials say that's a danger to the public, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

"For people who are really caught on a weekly income, if they can't make a go of it, they might say, 'I'm desperate. I'm going to do what I have to do, and I'm going into work even though I'm sick,'" Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy at Harvard University, told the newspaper, adding that such workers will also send their flu-stricken children to school, infecting others.

"Providing workers with paid sick days is essential if we're going to get serious about the public health recommendations for swine flu -- stay home until 24 hours after your fever is broken. That usually takes about five days," added Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

Topics: Georges Benjamin, H1N1
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
'Star Trek Into Darkness' screening NBC upfronts Met Ball 2013
'Great Gatsby' premieres in New York Spire raised on top of One WTC 2013: Celebrity break ups and divorces
Additional U.S. News Stories
1 of 16
Flags-In Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery
View Caption
Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Roskos with the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, "The Old Guard," participates in the annual Flags-In ceremony, May 23, 2013, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Soldiers place American flags in front of more than 260,000 gravestones in the cemetery in honor of Memorial Day. UPI/Kevin Dietsch
fark
Decorah lawyer charged with stealing from client. More than usual?
Not news: Police bust drug trafficking ring. FARK: An 84-year-old woman on an oxygen tank
Welcome to this week's episode of "Celebrity Don't You Know Who I Am?"
Angry waitress attacks and injures neighbor with lawn gnome. Hilarious pictures from the police...
How to use a coffee press to make your beer not taste like ass
Abercrombie & Fitch says sorry. So we're totally cool now, right?