July 06, 2011 12:28 AM UTC

One step closer to paid sick days in Denver

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• by: CampaignforaHealthyDenver

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

The Campaign for a Healthy Denver is one step closer to implementing a paid sick and safe leave policy in Denver.  Petition signature circulators collected over 12,000 signatures-which is well over three times the 3,973 petition signatures required to qualify for the November municipal ballot.  

About 40 activists dressed in medical scrubs and infectious disease masks delivered the petition signatures to the Denver City Clerk’s office today.  The clerk has 25 days to verify the signatures.

Coming on the heels of the recent poll that showed that two-thirds of Denver voters support the ballot language, cutting across nearly every demographic group (including self-identified Democrats, Republicans and Independents), it looks voters really want paid sick days to be the law of the land in Denver.

It’s about public health. Parents don’t want their kid to come home from childcare with the flu.  I know I’d rather the poor guy with norovirus stay home instead of serving up my lunch at a downtown restaurant.  And the last thing my friend’s elderly mother needs is her beloved home health worker to breathe her cold germs all over her.

And it’s pro-business, too, because it maximizes and protects worker productivity.  It’s much better to have one employee out sick for one day than to have disease transmission take out many for a week due to disease transmission.  And workers don’t abuse the policy in cities with paid sick days like San Francisco and Washington, D.C. despite dire predictions

Plus, isn’t it just the right thing to do?