“Christine Stancliff, a longtime janitor at Portland International Airport, called in sick last January when she thought she had a stomach flu, but her boss made her come to work anyway.
Stancliff wound up working four days while unable to hold down food — until a supervisor sent her home after she vomited in the employee break room garbage can. Stancliff went to Kaiser, where she was diagnosed with kidney damage. Her subsequent stay in the hospital cost her two days’ pay, Stancliff says, ‘so I had to cut down on my groceries and my insulin. After 11 years’ work for an airport contractor, Stancliff doesn’t get paid sick days. And she’s not the exception.'”