Senate panel trims some workers from paid sick leave bill

A Senate committee Thursday voted 5-0 to approve to a paid sick time bill that contains some significant differences from a House version passed last year.

The Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs scaled back the number of workers who would be guaranteed paid time off, but stopped short of letting the smallest of businesses off the hook.

During a week of hearings, the Senate panel considered exempting businesses with four employees or fewer from the requirement to let workers accrue paid time off to deal with illness or certain other family emergencies.

But instead the committee wrote in exemptions for part-timers who don’t work more than 20 weeks in a year and workers younger than 18. To qualify as an “employee” under the bill, a worker must have been employed “for an average of no less than 18 hours per week during a year.” There was no exemption for part-timers in the House version, H.187.

And, in a bow to the risks in starting a business, senators added a provision giving startups a year from the time they hire their first employee until they are subject to the law.

If the bill is not referred to the Appropriations Committee, it could be up for debate by the full Senate as early as Tuesday.

The maximum number of paid days off to which workers are entitled remains the same as in the House bill: three days (or 24 work hours) a year in the first two years the law is in effect and five days (or 40 hours) thereafter. But senators stipulated that employees will accrue an hour of sick time for every 52 hours worked, up from 40 hours in the House bill. Hours begin to accrue during the waiting period. Employers may require a waiting period of up to one year.

H.187 exempts a number of narrowly defined classes of workers in health care and education as well as seasonal and temporary workers. Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, the committee chair, expressed concern early on about language that appeared to let the state leave out a block of temporary workers who would be covered had they been in the private sector. But a consultation with Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan and her colleague Dirk Anderson made clear that most of the exempt classifications do have paid time off available. At most around 280 state employees would be affected by the exemption. The department said the costs of including those workers would be minimal.

At one point, the committee considered excluding very small companies. Some in the business community said the record-keeping and work scheduling requirements under the law would be onerous for mom-and-pop operations.

But the proposal died after Sen. Philip Baruth, a major backer of paid sick leave, drew a line in the sand. Mullin had regularly turned to Baruth, the vice chair, during discussion of changes to see where he stood.

Not including the smallest businesses would defeat the purpose of the bill, Baruth said, which is to provide sick leave to as many of the estimated 60,000 Vermonters who don’t have paid time off as possible. Research shows the workers without the benefit are concentrated in the state’s smaller businesses. The exemption for mom-and-pop operations would mean leaving out perhaps one-third of those the bill is intended to help, supporters said.

The bill has found both backers and opponents in the business community. Main Street Alliance businesses supporting it argue that better benefits attract better workers in a competitive market. Businesses belonging to the Vermont Chamber of Commerce say the legislation puts a new financial burden on companies. Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce members are split, with detractors saying mandatory leave is unnecessary, given how many employers already offer it, and that the policy is an undue burden on small businesses.

There is no provision for documenting the effects of a paid sick leave law on businesses and workers. However, Sen. Baruth expects that as part of the legislature͛s oversight function, committees will review the results once the law is in effect. “At the start of each biennium, for example, we try to catch up with recently passed legislation to find out how it͛’s going, to see if there are any glitches and to get data,” Baruth says.

The draft legislation also gives the Department of Labor the authority to levy fines and manage inquiries and complaints. The Department of Labor is to report on their experience with the new requirements annually after the policy has been in place for a year.

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