At a press conference in City Hall this afternoon, a coalition of small business owners, progressive and labor groups, and city officials announced a new paid sick leave proposal that includes numerous concessions requested by small businesses. PubliCola reported on the new proposal yesterday.
The new ordinance would require businesses to provide paid sick leave to all employees: Up to five days a year for businesses with fewer than 50 employees, or one hour for every 50 hours worked; up to seven days a year with businesses between 50 and 249 employees, or one hour for every 35 hours worked; up to nine days for businesses with between 250 and 999 employees, or one hour for every 30 hours worked; and, for companies with more than 1,000 employees, at least one hour of some sort of leave (vacation or sick time) for every 15 hours worked.
Sick leave could be used when an employee is sick or ill; when a child, partner, or relative is sick; to deal with domestic violence or stalking; or during public health emergencies.
Frequently, said Tasha West-Baker, an employee at a large grocery chain, “I have to make the choice of coming in sick or losing a day of work that could equate to 20 percent of my income for that week. … I have worked sick around food many times.”
Under the proposal introduced today, employees at smaller businesses would accrue leave more slowly than they would have under the original proposal (in addition to accruing less leave overall).
Additionally, the compromise proposal would allow workers in businesses with fewer than 250 employees to swap their shifts instead of taking paid time off (a policy that makes sense in restaurants, where workers’ pay comes mostly from tips, but might be open to abuse in retail and other low-paid service industries).
And it would require employees at smaller businesses to work for six months without paid leave before they would be allowed to stay home sick (employees at larger companies would only have to work three months before they vecame entitled to sick leave.
Asked about the reasoning behind requiring less sick leave for employees smaller businesses, Economic Opportunity Institute policy director Marilyn Watkins said, ‘”Obviously, you don’t get sick less often because you work in a smaller business [but] businesses that are a little larger have a greater ability to move people around.” As for the rules requiring employees to work longer at smaller businesses before their sick leave kicks in, Watkins said, “One of the things we heard, listening to small business owners, is that they do value having the sense that employees are there for the long haul and havnig athat little bit longer period of time allows that trust relationship to develop.”
Any violations of the proposed law—employers who pressured employees to switch shifts instead of taking paid leave, for example, or employers who failed to provide paid leave at all—would be handled on a complaint basis by the city’s civil rights commission. In San Francisco, which has had a paid sick leave law since 2007, “a extensive survey of both employers and workers showed really strong support by both employers and employees” for the law, Watkins said.
City council member Nick Licata, who started the push for paid sick leave on the council, says he expects to introduce a formal proposal by August. The idea has the support of several city council members, including Jean Godden and Sally Clark (who were both on hand, Godden taking her place line ten minutes after the press conference began), and Mayor Mike McGinn, a last-minute addition to this morning’s roster of speakers.
The proposal would also apply to temporary workers.
