In a narrow vote before a packed chamber last week, City Council approved a measure that would mandate private companies in the city to offer their employees paid sick leave, although it is still unclear whether the mayor will sign the bill into law.
Council voted 9-8 June 16 to approve the Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces measure, spearheaded by Councilman Darrell Clarke (D-5th Dist.) and Councilman-at-Large Bill Greenlee.
The bill would require companies with 10 or more employees to offer one hour of sick time for every 30 hours they worked, with a maximum of seven eight-hour work days possible, or four days for employees at companies with five to nine employees.
Workers can use the time for themselves or to care for sick relatives, including same-sex domestic partners.
Mark McDonald, a spokesperson for Mayor Nutter, said the bill is “under advisement” in the mayor’s office. He said the measure does not have mayoral support but stopped short of saying whether Nutter would veto it.
“It’s pretty clear through the various iterations of this bill with its many amendments that the mayor opposes this legislation,” McDonald said. “He believes it should be handled at the state or federal level. It certainly is a laudatory goal, but given the nature of the difficulty that small businesses and business in general in this city face, this is something that should be done on a broader basis. It sets up burdens and impacts the competition between businesses in the city and those just outside the city.”
If the mayor vetoes the bill, it would need 12 council votes to be overridden. If the mayor takes no action on the bill, it would become law in the fall.
Stephanie Haynes, community coordinator at LGBT family group Philadelphia Family Pride and a member of the Coalition for Healthy Families and Workplaces Coalition, said the effort to pass the measure was a grassroots one.
“I definitely felt a lot of momentum, especially from the LGBT community,” she said. “It seemed like a lot of people were reaching out to Councilmembers … so I felt we had a pretty good chance of passing this.”
More than 100 groups signed on to the coalition, including numerous HIV/AIDS and LGBT groups such as Action AIDS, AIDS Fund, BEBASHI, Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative, the William Way LGBT Community Center, AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, Mazzoni Center and Liberty City Democratic Club.
“I’ve been a politically involved person for a long time, and I know the hard work it takes to win something contentious like this,” Haynes said. “It really came down to the wire, and I think that hearing from members of our community was part of what made the difference.”
In addition to Clarke and Greenlee, Councilmembers Jannie Blackwell, Blondell Reynolds Brown, W. Wilson Goode Jr., Bill Green, Curtis Jones, Donna Reed Miller and Maria Quiñones Sánchez voted for the bill.
Opponents include Republicans Jack Kelly, Brian O’Neill and Frank Rizzo, and Democrats Frank DiCicco, Anna Verna, Jim Kenney, Joan Krajewski and Marian Tasco.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].