San Antonio passes paid sick leave ordinance, joining Austin in fight against top Texas Republicans

[TexasTowelie]

By Emma Platoff, Texas Tribune


The San Antonio City Council passed a new paid sick leave ordinance Thursday — but the local rule may well die either in the courts or on the floor of the state Legislature before it goes into effect next year.

The council voted 9-2 to allow San Antonio workers to accrue up to 64 hours of paid sick leave each year, sparking a wave of applause so loud the mayor had to quiet the room. In doing so, San Antonio became the second major Texas city to pass such an ordinance. Austin passed its own ordinance in February and drew quick, sharp rebukes from prominent state conservatives.

Advocates praise the measure as a boon for workers who need days off to care for themselves or for sick children. Opponents fret that the as yet-untold financial impact of the new ordinance will be devastating for small-business owners who already have to “count every chip in the bowl and napkin on the table,” as Councilman Greg Brockhouse put it.

Just hours after Austin passed the ordinance in February, state Rep. Paul Workman, an Austin Republican, pledged that he would file a bill overturning it “on the first day possible.” And the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation sued over the ordinance in April, drawing support days later from Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Last week, 29 Republican state lawmakers — led by state Sen. Donna Campbell, who represents a San Antonio-area district — signed onto the lawsuit, writing that the ordinance places businesses “at a competitive disadvantage.”

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/08/16/san-antonio-paid-sick-leave-ordinance/