As Amazon, Walmart Cut Covid Sick Days, Paid Leave Push Revives

Calls for restoring a national policy on Covid-19 paid sick leave are growing as omicron variant cases surge and major U.S. employers, including Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc., reduce the paid sick days employees can take for quarantine.

Supporters of a federal paid leave mandate say the latest wave of the pandemic highlights the need for Congress to guarantee all workers have access to paid sick time during the contagion—regardless of whether the omicron wave proves to be short-lived or has more staying power than the previous delta variant.

But business groups instead are ready to scale back the coronavirus-related ...