Petition Signatures Submitted for Paid Sick And Safe Time Initiative

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 5, 2011

DENVER – The Campaign for a Healthy Denver is one step closer to placing a municipal initiative allowing Denver workers to earn paid sick and safe days on Denver’s November ballot after the campaign submitted petition signatures to the Denver City Clerk today.

Dressed in infectious disease masks, paid sick leave activists delivered over 12,000 signatures, more than three times the 3,973 petition signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. The City Clerk has 25 days to verify the signatures.

“Denver voters agree that working families should not have to choose between their financial security and their families’ health,” said Erin Bennett, 9to5 National Association of Working Women Colorado Director and spokesperson for the Campaign for a Healthy Denver. “Our success in collecting more than enough petition signatures clearly shows that Denver voters want paid sick days for all workers – the time is now to implement this important policy in Denver.”

“The paid sick and safe time ballot initiative protects the public's health,” said Kyle Legleiter, President of the Colorado Public Health Association.  "Most of the workers who will earn paid sick and safe time for the first time are lower-wage workers who may expose the public to illnesses in restaurants, childcare centers and medical caregiving, all because they simply cannot afford to miss a day’s pay.”  The Colorado Public Health Association is Colorado’s largest association of public health professionals. The Association brings together people, groups, and organizations from across the state to support and advocate for public and environmental health in Colorado.

If the initiative passes, all workers in Denver will be able to earn paid sick and safe time based on the hours they work, up to nine days annually for full time workers to be pro-rated for part-time employees. Smaller businesses with fewer than 10 employees would be able to cap paid sick and safe time to five days per year. Two-thirds of Denver voters support the ballot language according to a recent poll, cutting across nearly every demographic group, including self-identified Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Workers are healthier and more productive when they have access to paid sick day in San Francisco, Washington, DC, and other cities where laws have already been enacted. Six in seven employers surveyed in San Francisco say that paid sick days have had no negative effect on profitability and nearly 70 percent of employers in that city the support the law.  

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The Campaign for a Healthy Denver – a coalition of more than 75 community organizations, labor groups, faith leaders and organizations, public health groups, elected officials and businesses seeks to pass a Denver ballot initiative to protect public health by guaranteeing a basic standard of paid sick days for employees in all Denver workplaces