Lawmakers reconsider provision stopping union members from using sick leave to care for family
Photo: Richard Bednarksi/Nevada Current)
Nevada lawmakers four years ago expanded the state's paid leave law to allow workers to use the time to care for the medical needs of immediate family members. But that 2021 bill specifically did not extend that option to employees covered by collective bargaining agreements.
Now, lawmakers are revisiting that decision.
Assembly Bill 112, sponsored by Democratic Assemblymember Duy Nguyen of Las Vegas, would allow workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to use their accrued leave to stay home with sick children or take elderly parents to medical appointments.
Using sick time for such purposes is already a common – but not openly acknowledged – practice that unionized employees could be disciplined for, union members told lawmakers on the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee, which heard the bill Friday.
'We're not asking for anything extra,' said Communications Workers of America Local 9413 President Marc Ellis, who worked with Nguyen on the bill. 'We're just asking that we don't have to lie to our employers. If a family member is sick, we should just be able to say 'my daughter's sick; my son's sick.' I shouldn't have to lie and say 'I'm sick.''
Union members testified about employers who shame or threaten to discipline workers who used sick time to care for a family member.
Klarissa Principe, a member of Transport Workers Union Local 577, which represents flight attendants at Allegiant Airlines, testified she was reprimanded for calling in to take her mom, who was battling uterine cancer, to the emergency room.
'My boss pulled me into the office and asked why I couldn't just drop my mom at the ER, come in for my shift, and pick her up when she was done,' she recalled. 'Respectfully, I would never do that. I'm not going to drop her off when she's in pain and not know what's going on and be at work not knowing what's happening.'
Kent Ervin, representing the Nevada Faculty Alliance, testified that only 12% of faculty are covered by collective bargaining agreements.
'There is no reason they should have fewer rights or have to negotiate up to the rights that other employers have to use sick leave,' he said.
Unions that spoke in support of AB112 include Culinary Union, AFL-CIO, SMART, United Auto Workers, National Nurses United, and Teamsters.
The bill is currently opposed by numerous business groups, including the Vegas Chamber, Nevada Resorts Association, and Retail Association of Nevada. But lobbyists for the groups indicated they plan to support or be neutral on the bill after the adoption of an amendment. That amendment, which has already been drafted, clarifies that employers can offer 'the same or more generous leave and/or benefits' as those required by the paid leave law.
Nevada's paid leave law, which legislators established in 2019, mandates that private sector employees at businesses with 50 or more employees accrue a total of 40 hours (five days) of paid leave annually, if they work full time.
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