Maine Senate President Libby Mitchell has backed away from her controversial paid sick leave bill after facing stiff opposition from business, and from members of the Legislature's Labor Committee. Mitchell, who is also a Democratic candidate for governor, has amended the bill so that it now prohibits employers from firing a worker because he or she calls in sick. But some committee members have problems supporting even that limited degree of protection for workers.

Maine Senate President Elizabeth "Libby" Mitchell shook up Maine's business community when unveiled her bill that would require most of the state's employers to provide paid sick leave for their employees. Then, in reaction to opposition from the Legislature's Labor Committee, the Vassalboro Democrat revised the bill so that it only applied to large employers.

And now there is no mandatory sick pay language in the bill at all. ""The purpose of this bill is that you cannot be fired because you're sick," Mitchell says.

The only original language left in Mitchell's amended bill is the section that prohibits Maine employers from firing workers who take sick days -- whether they're paid or unpaid.

The bill was unveiled at the height of the H1N1 pandemic when it became clear that infected people were going to work because they couldn't afford to lose their wages. Mitchell's original bill went to the 13-member Labor Committee that is stacked with eight Democratic members who have historically backed pro-worker legislation.

Today, Mitchell recalled to the committee how pro-business organizations organized to defeat her bill from the day it was introduced.

"I was not approached, I am a grown up senator here and that's fine, I'm fair game," she said. "It is ok to have these conversations, but don't believe that each side has been sitting around waiting to try to find common ground. I don't play that way. It's important, this is important to working men and primarily women, that we get this right."

But Mitchell encountered some strong opposition to the diluted version of her bill from Rep. Michael Thibodeau, a Winterport Republican on the committee. Thibodeau says Mitchell's amendment fails to deal with employees who claim to be sick -- but aren't.

"The fella called in sick one morning and at noontime when I went to the store in Prospect Maine -- there's a little store with a counter there that has about four seats in it -- and when I got there to get my lunch, my employee was sitting on the stool, quite frankly drunk, ok?" Thibodeau said.

Supporters of the bill attempted to persuade Thobodeau that he could simply have fired his worker under the proposed legislation. But Thibodeau still questioned why the measure doesn't require a doctor's verification.

"He called in sick. I don't know if he was sick. What was it?" he said. "He doesn't have to have a doctor's note. How do I know if he was sick? I mean, am I over-analyzing this? He may very well have been deathly sick at 8:00 o'clock, or 5:00 o'clock when he called in sick. Boy, I want to tell you, he was definitely drunk at noontime at that lunch counter."

For Maine workers who had hoped the original paid sick leave bill would provide them with a few more benefits than they currently have, the amended legislation is a disappointment.

"Despite clear benefits to people and to businesses, the Labor Committee essentially rejected a bill to establish the critical protection of paid sick days for Maine people," says Maine Women's Lobby Executive Director Sarah Standiford.

But Standiford says when it became clear that the paid sick leave provision would not make it through the Labor Committee, all sides agreed that some job protection for worker who are forced to stay home due to illness must be preserved.

""Because of that scenario, it's my understanding that President Mitchell proposed yet another amendment, this one to at least ensure that people are not fired for doing exactly what public health officials tell them to do, which is stay home when they're sick, or keep sick kids home from school," Standiford says.

Members of the labor panel are expected to vote the bill out of committee on Monday.