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February 6, 2007
San Francisco Discovers That Paid Sick Leave Is a Human Right
The campaign to drive all small business out of San Francisco continues, with a law mandating that all businesses must provide paid sick leave to employees.
Though it is the first such law in the country, it is unlikely to be the last. Chappaquiddick Ted Kennedy, no friend to those of us trying to keep businesses afloat, will hold a hearing on a federal version next week, as the Founding Fathers continue to spin in their graves.
Craig Stoll, chef/owner of the Mission District restaurant Delfina's, knows that the law will be exploited — with disastrous results for businesses:
If we're short a person, we go down in flames. It just doesn't work, like a wheel missing a spoke. For people to not come in and take advantage of this in a wholesale way would be disastrous.
Another chef/owner, Dan Scherotter of Palio D'Asti, is complying with this intrusive and pernicious law by reclassifying vacation time as sick time. He notes that business owners aren't the only ones who will pay:
My cost of meat will go up, produce will go up, janitorial service will go up. It all gets passed on to me, and I'll have to pass it on (to customers) in higher prices.
We'll never catch up to France if we move by such small increments. Why not jump ahead by declaring that anyone who is enough of a sucker to take initiative in producing wealth has to pay everyone else to sit home and watch TV all year long?
On a tip from Wiggins.
Posted by Van Helsing at February 6, 2007 11:46 AM
Comments
Van, do you ever read Clayton Cramer? He has some good stories that fit the bill of moonbattery.
I'm thoroughly disgusted with the people we refer to as moonbats. All they think or care about is themselves.
Posted by: Steve at February 6, 2007 2:16 PM
why good people are not leaving californistan in droves is beyond me...speaking as a recovering californian...
Posted by: nanc at February 6, 2007 7:06 PM
Steve,
Good find, I added Clayton Cramer to the blogroll.
Posted by: Van Helsing at February 6, 2007 8:36 PM
Americans are nanc, the only reason California's population is growing is because the Mexican/Latino population is exploding. The politicians obviously know that Mexicans are even more likely to get pulled into this populist garbage because that is what they love in Mexico. They will fall for it all over the nation and our freedom will vanish when they do.
Posted by: Chris at February 6, 2007 9:53 PM
I really got a laugh out of this part: "-- Employers may take "reasonable measures" to verify that employees are using their leave lawfully. It is not considered reasonable to require a doctor's note for all absences.
I'm guessing the only thing that SF poobahs will consider "reasonable measures" is the word of the workers, since actually asking the pertinent physician to verify the paid leave was legitimate has been taken out of play. Because if the employer were to, say, go knock on his employee's door to see if the person was actually RIPPING HIM OFF, it would be considered a)an invasion of the worker's privacy; b)intimidation to deny the worker his "right", or c) (plug in something equally ridiculous--it'll fit.)
Posted by: TC@LeatherPenguin at February 7, 2007 5:39 AM
And of course next is requiring employers to pay employees for unused sick time and allowing employees to sue over being fired for abusing sick time.
Posted by: Bandit at February 7, 2007 8:03 AM
"And of course next is requiring employers to pay employees for unused sick time...."
A cafeteria where I once worked DID do that, but then "somebody" raised the minimum wage and we LOST that benefit!
Posted by: KHarn at February 7, 2007 2:19 PM
When will liberal democrats ever learn that you can't legislate better living, you can't force employers to earn less or make less profit.
It's simply this:
Salary + Benefits = Total Compensation
Benefits go up, salary goes down.
Legislate it and you end up forcing employers to either cut back on their total workforce or raise their prices.
So a bunch of employees lose their jobs so that others can have paid sick leave, so what, it all evens out, right?
So the restaurants raise their prices, customers stop coming, and the whole place shuts down...it's okay, they were probably evil republican employers, anyway.
I'm a contractor, myself. I don't get any paid sick time. I lost a lot of money over the last few months because my kids brought home every cold they could find from preschool. But my lost sick time is still better than the lower salary I'd earn as an employee with benefits.
Posted by: NudeGayWhalesForJesus at February 8, 2007 12:02 PM
