Skip to main content

This Just In: Obama To Propose Paid Sick Leave For (Most) Employees


Today, President Obama is expected to call on Congress to pass a bill, the Healthy Families Act, that would require companies to pay for up to seven days of paid sick leave a year for their employees.  But as the saying goes, "Alright, how are you going to do it?"  Well, first of all, the bill would apply only to companies that employ at least 15 workers.  For those employees that qualify, they would earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 56 hours of paid sick time per year. 

In an executive action, Obama is also expected to give at least six weeks of paid leave to federal employees after the birth or adoption of a child.  To take it one step further, Obama also plans to ask Congress to allocate approximately $2.2 billion to help states and cities set up paid family leave programs.

For those who are readers of the blog (and those who aren't), remember that paid sick leave was one of the big issues that started to crop up last year.  Several cities approved paid sick leave for workers, including voters recently in the Bay Area last November. 

Time will tell if this bill actually passes.  Remember that Congress is controlled by Republicans, so it would not take much to kill this bill before Obama could even have a chance to sign it into law.  With that being said, this is the first step.  The ball is in Congress' court now...


Additional information can be found here, from the announcement of Obama's senior White House adviser, Valerie Jarrett:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/01/15/obama-proposes-to-cut-everyones-pay-with-paid-sick-leave/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations
Post a Comment
Read more

NLRB: Former Employee Cannot Be Barred From Work Premises After Filing Wage Suit

MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC - NLRB Facts :  MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC d/b/a Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ("GSR") operated a facility that included a hotel, casino, restaurant, clubs, bars, and a pool which were all open to the general public.  Tiffany Sargent ("Sargent") was briefly employed by GSR as a "beverage supervisor" in December of 2012.  After her employment ended, Sargent continued to socialize at one of the clubs.  GSR had a long standing practice of allowing former employees to patronize its facility and did not prohibit Sargent from doing so.  In June of 2013, Sargent and another employee filed a class and collective action against GSR for alleged unpaid wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.  In July of 2014, GSR denied Sargent access to an event at one of the clubs.  GSR followed up with a letter and stated that with the on-going litigation (from the wage suit), it decided to bar Sargent from the premises. ...
1 comment
Read more