San Francisco - The latest figures show that some 44 million workers in private employment - more than 40 percent of the private-sector workforce - do not have paid sick days that they could use to recover from illnesses, including contagious illnesses such as the flu, or worse.
It should be of particular concern that those occupations which are currently least likely to provide paid sick days include occupations most likely to have regular contact with the public - most importantly and most disturbingly, food service and food preparation.
That raises serious health problems - especially in these tight economic times, when workers need to stay on the job as much as they can, no matter how ill they are, to earn as much money as they can. Which, of course, endangers the health of those who come in contact with them, as well as delaying their recovery from their illness.
Public health experts note that the fewer the number of workers who are able to stay at home when sick, the more likely it is that diseases will spread. In addition to the increased suffering of the public and other workers which that causes, it also causes significant economic losses.
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