Doctors Council SEIU Joins Volunteer Efforts to Announce Start of Earned Sick Leave in NYC

For Immediate Release
July 16, 2014_­

Doctors Council SEIU members passed out leaflets and engaged New Yorkers around the city’s subway stops on the newly implemented Paid Sick Leave law, which allows most employees in New York City to begin using earned sick leave on July 30, 2014.

“We’re thrilled to be out today, letting New Yorkers know about the new sick leave law,” Doctors Council SEIU President Frank Proscia, M.D. said. “No one should ever have to go into work sick, or choose between working and staying home to care for a sick loved one—and now thanks to the new law—the vast majority of New Yorkers will never have to.”

Under the new law, which took effect on April 1, most individuals who work in NYC for more than 80 hours a year are eligible to earn up to 40 hours of sick leave to care for themselves or a family member.

Doctors Council SEIU advocated for and supported Mayor de Blasio and the City Council’s initiative to create the Sick Leave law, and testified in support of earned sick leave when the legislation was first introduced at the beginning of the year.

 

About Doctors Council SEIU

Doctors Council SEIU, a professional organization for doctors, is the nation’s oldest and largest union of attending physicians and dentists in the United States, with members in New York City, and in states across the country. Formed in 1973, Doctors Council SEIU is a union for doctors and a voice for patients, and represents attending physicians and dentists at Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) facilities and hospitals, including doctors employed by the affiliates New York University School of Medicine, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Physician Affiliate Group of New York (PAGNY). HHC is the largest public hospital system in the nation. Doctors Council SEIU also represents doctors in the New York City Mayoral agencies including the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) as well as doctors working at Rikers Island, the largest correctional facility in the nation. Affiliated with SEIU, Doctors Council SEIU is a national union representing doctors employed in the public and private sectors.