Task force to make recommendations this week
The Spokane City Council expects to receive the final report and recommendations from its earned safe and sick leave task force this week. The task force was formed by Council in response to community requests to address sick leave as a workplace policy city-wide.
Small business owners, medical professionals, non-profits, community groups and city council members gathered in a packed Saranac Commons on Tuesday to unveil a sick, safe and family leave policy for the City of Spokane. The Spokane Alliance, a coalition of groups in Spokane County, has been conducting outreach and analysis for nearly two years with positive results: nearly two dozen small businesses already endorse the draft policy, city council has announced their intention to pass a policy by summer, and hundreds of stories have been collected that speak to the profound impact of employees having access to paid sick, safe and family leave.
SPOKANE, Wash. - If you're out sick from work, do you get paid? Many in Spokane do not, but some city council members want to change that.
City council members Jon Snyder and Amber Waldref plan to introduce a resolution this week that basically states their intentions to establish a paid sick leave ordinance in the city. Snyder and Waldref are shooting to have a paid sick leave policy by this summer.
For many workers, getting sick does not mean time off work. In fact, about 40,000 workers in Spokane do not have paid sick leave, according to the Spokane Alliance. That group, and city council members, announced today an ordinance to require paid sick leave for all Spokane workers.
Spokane Public Radio - Paige Browning - Tuesday, March 31, 2015
In a downtown Spokane restaurant kitchen during Hoopfest weekend 2013, Isaiah Kibwe Day naturally struggled to keep up with the biggest rush of the year. He was dicing an avocado when his knife slipped into his palm below the thumb. He barely avoided damage to the nerve and connective tissues and recalled that "picking up something as unimposing as a piece of paper was excruciating."
Next time you get a burger at the Lantern Tap House in Spokane’s Perry District, rest assured it didn’t come with a cough.
The restaurant has enacted a paid sick leave policy for its 10 kitchen employees, prompting immediate gratitude from its cooks and dishwashers, as well as an upcoming visit from U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
Almost 200 people packed the Spokane City Council chambers and Chase Gallery on Monday night for the council’s final meeting of the year. Most of them came to support an ordinance put forth by Council President Ben Stuckart mandating that a certain amount of work on public works construction projects be performed by apprentices.
Spokane City Council’s last meeting of the year was a marathon session that lasted over four hours and brought out the largest group of people the city’s legislative body had seen all year.
On Labor Day, the Spokane Alliance salutes a century of progress for American workers, including the five-day workweek, collective bargaining rights and better workplace safety. But much remains to be done, especially in low-wage Spokane, to create more job opportunities for young people and veterans.
Faith, government and business leaders stood in front of almost 200 people at Westminster Congregational United Church of Christ on Tuesday night and pledged to support Spokane Alliance in its efforts to get the City of Spokane to adopt a Paid Sick, Safe, Family Leave policy by 2015.