Last March, as part of Congress’s first COVID relief bill, the federal government enacted a blanket paid sick leave benefit to ensure that people infected with COVID-19 could stay home without fear of losing their wages.

The benefit had gaping holes, including a provision that exempted companies with more than 500 employees from the policy, leaving millions of workers without protections. Then, in December, Congress declined to extend what was left of the COVID-related paid sick leave program.

Now, as a congressional hearing today scrutinizes corporations’ treatment of low-wage workers, the battle over paid leave is being rekindled: Shareholders at a variety of major US corporations are pushing for resolutions asking management to, as one of the proposals put it, “analyze and report on the feasibility of including paid sick leave (PSL) as a standard employee benefit not limited to COVID-19.”