Wearing medical masks and offering warnings of germ-infested coffee, supporters of a measure requiring employers to grant paid sick time to all Denver employees gathered in front of a downtown Starbucks on Tuesday morning.
About a dozen supporters of the Campaign for a Healthy Denver carried signs that read, “No coughing in our coffee,” protesting the lack of paid sick days Starbucks grants its employees.
The coffee company, which made a $1 billion profit last year, provides sick pay to employees in other countries but not the United States, said Jason McKain, a spokesman for the campaign.
The new measure would require Denver businesses to grant nine days a year of paid sick time to full-time employees; employers with fewer than 10 employees would have to give five days of sick leave. Sick time would be pro-rated for part-time staffers.
About 72 percent of food-service employees in Denver do not have paid sick days, McKain said.
No Starbucks employees took part in the demonstration. The Denver Post
