Health workers signed a letter calling for a paid leave sent on Monday to the White House. More than 500 health experts signed the letter to call for the expansion of paid sick and family leave for all American workers. 

The health experts are cautioning the Trump administration regarding the federal government allowing the reopening of schools in the fall without establishing first a paid leave program for the health workers, as per HuffPost.

The letter was organized through the Paid Leave for All Campaign. Health workers urged the Trump government to push Congress to expand the emergency paid leave policy, which was made during the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter also calls on lawmakers for an end to the exemption of large companies.

The letter states that public health professionals and organizations in front of protecting the public health urge the administration and Congress to ensure access to emergency paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave through 2021. 

American Health Workers Wants a Paid Leave Before Schools Reopen
(Photo : Ernesto Ryan)
Students Get Back To School in Uruguay MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY - JUNE 29 : Students at the "Japon" public school number 72 attend class during the first day of the final phase of the gradual process to reopen schools on June 28, 2020 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Schools will impose strict social distancing measures and assistance is voluntary. Department of Treinta y Tres and border city of Rivera, postponed the return to school due to recent positive cases.

In March, Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to provide funding up to two weeks of paid sick days plus ten weeks of paid emergency child care leave. This program will be applicable if the school or child care facilities shut down. But the paid leave program is set to expire at the end of 2020. The policy excludes all workers in companies with more than 500 employees. Meaning, millions of front-line workers are not included.

Health workers are concerned that millions of people will face financial pressure without comprehensive paid leave. Affected people would have to think to go to work even if they have COVID-19 symptoms. With the paid leave programs, many parents who can't find child care would ease the burden in the reopening of schools even if they are at risk of losing employment. 

The letter address to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the guidance that schools and businesses imply flexible sick leave policies and practices that allow staff to stay home when they have been exposed, sick, or caring for a sick family member.  

The co-signers of Monday's letter believe that paid leave is important and will work as their safety net, especially for the reopening of schools. Solange Gould, a signer of the letter and co-director of the public health group "Human Impact Partners," told HuffPost, "As a public health professional and parent, I know that expanded paid leave is critical to the safe and equitable reopening of schools." He added that paid leave could ensure the families' financial security and allow parents, teachers, and school staff to care for their families and themselves while fighting the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Top White House officials and lawmakers are negotiating another pandemic relief package after early aid measures expired. However, the universal paid leave has not reached the center of the latest negotiations. Republicans carved out exemptions for the huge corporations and the healthcare industry, in the Families First package. The exclusions would exclude 106 million workers for the program, as per Huffpost's Emily Peck. 

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