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Sickly Paid Sick Day Bill Getting Second Chance In City Council
By
Garth Johnston
Published Sep 28, 2012
Modified Sep 28, 2012
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Sep 28, 2012
Modified Sep 28, 2012
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For two years now City Council Speaker (and mayoral frontrunner) Christine Quinn has been actively keeping a bill that would give New Yorkers paid sick leave away from a Council vote. She's doing so because she knows the unpopular-with-businesses idea, though popular with New Yorkers, will pass with a Bloomberg-veto-proof majority. But she may soon have no choice.
See, City Councilman Daniel Garodnick has proposed a watered-down version of the bill that he co-sponsored with Councilwoman Gale Brewer and it is gaining some traction. In fact, inspired by his ideas, Brewer says "she expected to amend the bill in the next month or two, and hold a hearing by the end of the year."
So what has changed? The old bill required almost all businesses with five or more employees to provide up to five days of paid sick leave a year, as well as requiring companies with 20 or more employees to provide each of them with as many as nine paid sick days. Restaurants in particular were very against it. The new bill instead would focus on requiring five paid sick days (or flexible vacation days) and would exclude seasonal workers, limit liability and allow employees to swap shifts rather than take a paid sick day.
Many businesses are still not in love with the idea—because why would they be?—and Quinn is keeping her mouth shut on the topic. Though some of her supporters, like Gloria Steinem, have said their backing is conditional on a paid-sick-day vote, a rep for the Speaker would only tell the Times: "Speaker Quinn looks forward to reviewing Council Member Garodnick’s proposals. As she has stated before, given the current economic reality, now is not the right time for this policy."
As for how many New Yorkers feel about the bill, this recent video from the group NYC For Paid Sick Days represents about 73 percent of the population:
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