Mandatory paid sick leave ordinances in Texas face hurdles
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What to Know: Concerns about discrimination have slowed progress on bills that would preempt cities from enacting mandatory paid sick leave ordinances.
“After facing unexpected friction in Texas’ Republican-dominated Legislature, a pair of bills to override local rules mandating paid sick leave and standardize employment practices across the state passed the Senate on Thursday over the objections of LGBTQ advocates who have warned the bills could threaten local non-discrimination protections,” the Texas Tribune reports. “Since Austin passed an ordinance in February 2018 mandating that employers allow workers to accrue paid sick time, Republican state lawmakers have made clear that they hoped to override such local rules. The lawmakers have called the requirements anti-small business and fretted that they created a ‘patchwork of regulations’ across the state.”
The TPPF Take: Nothing in the proposed would permit discrimination.
“The Texas Attorney General’s Office has clearly stated that these bills would ‘not preempt local nondiscrimination ordinances,’ but would ensure that employers in Texas have a level playing field,” says TPPF’s Rob Henneke. “The fact is that cities have no business dictating terms of employment to Texas companies and Texas workers. And aside from that, mandatory paid sick leave ordinances go against Texas law.”
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