Restaurant workers rally for sick pay

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (WTNH) - Sick of not getting paid to take a day off when they're feeling under the weather, workers rallied outside a Bridgeport McDonalds.

They made their point by grossing out the customers with signs that no one wants to see going into or out of a restaurant.

Supporters of legislation that would require restaurants to give their workers paid sick time rallied in front of a Bridgeport McDonalds on Mar.31, with a graphic message.

Members of Everybody Benefits.org stood outside on Fairfield Avenue, spreading the message of "no more coughing in our coffee" and "no more pink eye in our french fries," just two of the several descriptive ways of making their point -- that paid sick days are all about public health.

"Over 400,000 workers in Connecticut don't get a single paid sick day all year long. There are people who work in food service, they work in nursing homes, they drive school buses. They're exactly the kind of people we don't want going to work sick and spreading their illness," says Lindsay Farrell of Connecticut Working Families.

The Connecticut Restaurant Association opposes the legislation, saying it's too expensive, because restaurants are a "right now service business." Restaurant owners would have to double pay for a shift, both for a sick worker, and to bring in a replacement.

Those who rallied say workers should not have to choose between their job and their health.

"I can't tell you how many times I've seen our children in schools who are ill, who should be at home or in the care of a physician, but their parent can't make the right choice, which is to stay home with their child when they're sick, because that parent has financial obligations, or is concerned about losing their job," says Maria Periera of the Bridgeport Board of Education.

The National Restaurant Association has issued statements on this legislation saying restaurant owners can't afford any more government mandates.