PHOENIX -- A new plan would require employers to give workers five paid days off if they get swine flu.
Sandra Andrews owns Care Givers of Arizona, a small home health care business in Phoenix.
She is bracing for this year's flu season and knows the H1N1, or swine, flu could add to the pain.
“At least 25 percent of our staff will get sick during flu season,” Andrews said.
But Andrews is concerned about a proposed plan in Congress that would require employers to give their workers up to five paid days off work if they, or a member of their family, get the swine flu.
“If we had 10 people out sick with the flu for five days it adds up really quickly," Andrews said. "That's a lot of money to be shelling out. I don't know where that money is gonna come from."
But nearly half the workers in the U.S. have no paid sick leave and Arizona's top health official worries the swine flu could spread if workers cannot afford to take a day off with no pay.
“A sick person who comes into work because they don't have any leave could turn into dozens of people later,” said Will Humble, interim director of the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Andrews thinks there is another way to keep the sick at home that is more cost effective.
“Making up the hours -- everybody wins," Andrews said. "The employee doesn't have to lose their pay. The employer gets the production so they can have the income coming in."
It is an alternative idea Humble said he supports.
“Flexibility. If you send them home, have them make it up later on a Saturday or something so that you're still getting work out of that person," Humble said. "That's a great idea."
It’s not yet clear when Congress will consider its mandatory sick pay plan.
