That, of course, is assuming you even have a job decent enough to even allow time off for things like "illness" and such.
I have seen a quote about Team Bush that is attributed to Meteor Blades that goes something like this:
They pour syrup on shit and call it hotcakes.
There's another fine stack of hotcakes for you, just over the flip.
Big Business has long wanted to rollback gains workers have made and enjoyed in being able to have time off when they - or their children or family member is ill, and now they are running out of time
The 127-page document issued Feb. 11 is probably the last chance the Bush administration will have to fine-tune rules for the law, which allows millions of workers to take as much as 12 weeks of unpaid leave over a year. Companies have been pushing for years to narrow the reach of the law, while Democrats, who control Congress and hope to take back the White House, want it expanded.
One major change would allow employers to contact health- care providers who authorize the leave, access they don't have now. Another would require workers to provide more frequent documentation of chronic conditions.
God, how they hate our freedoms.
We aren't even talking about paid leave: this is about people taking UNPAID time away from their jobs for something serious related to their or their family's health. And employers hate it.
Bush's labor department has other dreams too;
- Redefine having a "serious health condition" to require at least two visits to a health care provider within a month of being incapacitated. People who have chronic serious health care conditions would be required to visit a health care provider at least twice a year.
- Make people who are diagnosed with illnesses lasting an unknown period of time get medical certifications of their problems every year.
- Quickly craft regulations putting into effect a law allowing workers to take as much as 26 weeks of FMLA leave to take care of an injured or ill member of the military.
The normal, non-military person has just been totally discounted.
The media, tools of Team Bush and Big Bidness like the New York Sun, are, of course, dutifully cheerleading this unfinished assault on the workers of this country, claiming that people who take time off are just "abusing" their sick time or the FMLA. The writer hisses like a snake:
What is FMLA? Why does it create such havoc in some workplaces? The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 entitles employees of firms with at least 50 workers to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year for the birth or adoption of a child, to cover an employee's sickness, or to take care of close relatives with serious health conditions. Between six and 13 million workers a year take FMLA.
Can't you just feel the love?
Your illness isn't real, you're just a lazy slave.
Shut your face and get back to work.
The New York Sun came up with 3 whole pages of FMLA bashing and managed to work in Hillary Clinton, of course:
But Senator Clinton, who has proposed legislation to expand FMLA, issued a statement saying that "the Bush Administration has acted once again to tilt the balance of power towards corporations instead of hardworking Americans." Mrs. Clinton wants to expand the number of eligible workers and move towards paid leave.
The evil Hillary....standing up for the worker and talking about paid leave. OMG!
Here's a link to her press release, unsullied by rightwing nonsense:
The Bush Administration is seeking to make it more difficult for employees to claim paid leave when it is available to them by requiring the employers leave policies to take precedent over the FMLA; requiring employees with chronic health conditions to obtain an annual certification that they are able to do their job or risk being transferred to a different job; allowing employers to communicate directly with medical providers, which raises privacy concerns; and much more. The proposed regulation is 500 pages long.
500 friggin' pages? (Hillary left out the word "friggin'" but I know she meant to say it)
That reflects their capitalistic desire to tie an anchor to this workplace freedom and toss it overboard to drown.
People need MORE workplace freedom, not less.
Just because Team Bush hijacked this country and rammed the economy into the ground doesn't mean they should bail out big business by eliminating our little freedoms, and seeking to ruin our lives and livelihoods.
Big Bidness will whine and carry on that this FMLA costs them money and, as seen with the NY Sun article, they will have media carrying anti-FMLA propaganda which tries to make people who need time off look like lazy slackers who should just be fired.
Capitalism dreams of getting labor as cheaply as possible with slavery being the ideal. All work and production with no actual cost.
The closer they can get to something for nothing, the better and Team Bush and the GOP are hard at work trying to deliver them a nation trapped in debt, afraid to take a day off or even talk back to an employer for fear of being cast into unemployment. We're already working 2 shitty jobs to try and make one half-way decent income and half of us have no health insurance.
I am supporting Obama for President but I didn't see a statement from him on this - and I searched a little bit. If any reader has one, lemme know! I'll update.
But fairness demands this, everybody: Hillary said the right things on this issue.
The Democratic Party could easily show a bit of unity on this issue as it cuts across political boundaries. Everybody's going to be affected, even Bush's base.
Update [2008-2-20 7:43:22 by xxdr zombiexx]: bendygirl advises there is more good info in The Family Medical Leave Act: The Sick-Leave Law Gets Sick.