PHOENIX — The state's top health official wants businesses to let workers with the flu stay home, even if companies have to pay them.

Will Humble said he understands "the old-fashioned work ethic" where some firms evaluate employees is if they're so dedicated to their jobs that they come in even when they're sick.

"There are people that believe that actually demonstrates commitment," said Humble, the interim director of the Arizona Department of Health Services. What it is, he said, is short-sighted by employers who encourage that.

"One sick person is one sick person and you lose some productivity," he said.

Humble said, though, that any virus — including the novel H1N1 flu — is very communicable and spreads easily.

"So one sick person turns into five sick people or 10 sick people or 20 sick people," he said. "And that really puts a dent in your ability to accomplish your goals."

He said the pressure is not only on companies.

Humble said sometimes a worker has no built-up sick or vacation time. And that puts the employee in a situation where making the decision to stay home means not getting paid.

Humble said employers can help by thinking about viable alternatives.

He said his own agency tries to find ways for workers to telecommute. The state has a "virtual private network" where employees can access everything that on their office computers from home.

"But we also ask them to demonstrate that they can effectively get the job done through the telecommuting program, that they're not helping their kids with homework and checking the pool and mowing the grass and all that kind of stuff," he said. "We want to make sure that we're actually getting a day's work out of a person who's telecommuting."

He acknowledged that not all work can be done from home.

"If you've got a business where you're putting tires on cars, telecommuting isn't something that's an option for you," Humble said. In that case, he said, employers need to make it very clear that they don't want people coming to work when they're sick.

That still leaves the problem of what to do with someone who says he or she just can't afford to take time off without pay.

Humble said companies should find ways of providing administrative leave, with pay, for those who don't have sick time or vacation to use.

He said that may go against the grain of some employers who don't want to pay people for not working.

"On one hand, they need to say, 'Well, I'm going to pay this person for two or three days even though they're sick and I'm not getting anything out of them. On the other hand, they're a valuable employee that I want to keep but I don't want them spreading the virus at work where I might lose two or three or four or five people for a number of days that do have sick leave,'" Humble said.

"The bottom line is, it's too big a risk for your business to have a sick person coming to work," he said. "As a business, you are putting your ability to accomplish your objectives in jeopardy if you let sick people come to work."

The other side of the equation, Humble said, is convincing workers that they're doing no one any favors by coming to work sick.

"What it really demonstrates is a disregard for your co-workers," he said. "It's basically rude."

At this point, though, the state itself has no actual policy designed to provide paid time off for sick workers who lack leave time.

What it does have is a procedure which allows employees who have accumulated leave to donate it to those who need it. That, however, means the employee who donates the time runs the risk of not having sufficient paid days off left if he or she becomes sick later.

Alan Ecker, spokesman for the state Department of Administration, said, though, his agency which handles personnel matters for the state is reviewing its policies ahead of what could be a spike in flu cases this winter to see if some accommodation might be made to let sick workers stay home and still get paid.

Sick leave policies aside, Humble said there are other things companies can do to help keep themselves in operation — and their workers healthy — as the flu spreads, such as providing hand sanitizers.