Paid Leave: Fed’s Rescue Plan Will Protect Workers, Families
Some workers who are sick or have to care for family members will have protection against financial losses, thanks to provisions in the American Rescue Plan.
April 29, 2021 •
(Shutterstock) One in four working Americans does not have access to paid sick leave, nor do almost 1 in 3 of those who work at private companies with less than 100 employees. Low-wage and minority workers are least likely to be covered and most likely to feel financial pressure to stay at work and to have front-line jobs with high risk for COVID-19 exposure.
Coming to work sick is a bad idea at any time, but it’s less of a “personal” decision than ever during a pandemic. The American Rescue Plan (ARP) continues and adjusts provisions of previous stimulus bills designed to expand the availability of paid leave that workers can use to quarantine, recover from illness or care for family members.
(Reuters) - President Joe Biden will sign an executive order on Monday that will create a task force to promote labor organizing, a White House official said, at a time when just over 6 percent of U.S. private-sector workers belong to unions. The White House task force will be headed by Vice President Kamala Harris, the official, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh will serve as vice chair of the group. The task force will also include top cabinet officials such as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the White House economic advisers Cecilia Rouse and Brian Deese, the White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy and Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen.
Trump appointees blocked EPA from investigating ethylene oxide polluters and prevented staff from warning Americans about the cancer-causing gas, report says yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ashlee Rezin Garcia / Sun-Times
A senior political appointee in the Trump administration stifled attempts by Chicago-based environmental regulators to investigate and remedy cancer-causing ethylene oxide releases in the Chicago area, a new government report says.
The unnamed official instructed the Chicago office of the federal Environmental Protection Agency to refrain from inspecting ethylene oxide facilities including the Sterigenics medical sterilization plant in Willowbrook unless asked to by state officials, according to the report from the EPA’s inspector general.
Citing information investigators gathered from managers from the EPA’s Chicago region office, the report says “senior leaders” instructed staff members of the agency to limit air monitoring around the Sterigenics plant, refrain from seeking health and risk assessments from federal health officials and hold off on sending requests for information to ethylene oxide facilities in the area.
Trump appointees blocked EPA from investigating ethylene oxide polluters and prevented staff from warning Americans about the cancer-causing gas, report says chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.