Paid Sick Leave – New York City

Posted on April 1, 2013 by admin

• Deal reached to force paid sick leave in New York City, By Michael Barbaro and Michael M. Grynbaum, March 28, 2013, New York Times: “New York City is poised to mandate that thousands of companies provide paid time off for sick employees, bolstering a national movement that has been resisted by wary business leaders. A legislative compromise reached on Thursday night represents a raw display of political muscle by a coalition of labor unions and liberal activists who overcame fierce objections from New York’s business-minded mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, and his allies in the corporate world. The deal required a high-profile concession from a leading candidate to succeed Mr. Bloomberg, Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who had single-handedly blocked action on the sick-leave issue for three years, arguing that it would inflict damage on the city’s fragile economy…”
• Sick-pay plan called blessing and burden, By Patrick McGeehan, March 29, 2013, New York Times: “The compromise reached on a sick-leave law for workers in New York City drew cheers on Friday from employees who have feared that catching a cold could cost them their jobs. But some employers complained that it would unfairly load yet another expense onto their shoulders. The agreement would eventually require most businesses with at least 20 employees to provide up to five days a year off with pay for illness. It also calls for even the smallest businesses, like the bodegas found on nearly every block, to let workers take days off without pay but without jeopardizing their jobs when they are too sick to work…”