January 30, 2017
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and City Councilman-at-Large Bill Greenlee are not happy with legislation advancing through the Pennsylvania Senate that would effectively override the city's decision in 2015 to enact an earned paid sick leave law.
Considered for the first time last week, Senate Bill 128 calls for a clear state preemption of local mandated leave ordinances in order to protect small businesses from an uneven playing field. The bipartisan bill, sponsored by senators John H. Eichelberger Jr. (R-30th) and Lisa M. Boscola (D-18th).
"Not all businesses are the same and a blanket policy that does not recognize these differences only hurts small businesses struggling in this current economy," the sponsors wrote in a memo late last year. "Clearly, the state and federal governments are the appropriate policy makers when labor laws are involved. For that reason, twelve states have already passed such preemption bills."
In a statement Monday, Mayor Kenney strongly opposed the bill on grounds that it goes against Pennsylvania's general rule on such matters and will derail a labor protection that took years to establish in Philadelphia.
“If successful, this would be a direct contravention of the concept of municipal home rule embodied for nearly a century in the Pennsylvania Constitution," Kenney said. "For state lawmakers to cherry-pick and toss out City laws to which they may object undermines the right to home rule afforded to every municipality in the Commonwealth. Given that many of the sponsors regularly espouse the need for local control, the effort strikes me as particularly hypocritical, and I urge the full Senate and House to reject Senate Bill 128.”
The earned paid sick leave bill, signed by former Mayor Michael Nutter in Feb. 2015, took effect in May of that year under the following guidelines.
Paid Sick Leave
“I am extremely disappointed that the legislature is once again attempting to interfere with how Philadelphia governs itself,” Greenlee said. “It is regrettable that upwards of 200,000 workers in Philadelphia, some of whom live in the nearby suburbs, could be denied paid sick leave that they are already earning under our law that went into effect 18 months ago. Such action would be injurious not only to the health of workers themselves but to their families and to the public in general.”
