Log In | Become a Member

Task Force Delivers Setback to Earned Sick Time Proponents

January 9th, 2014 | WMFE- A state task force says Florida should not set minimum mandatory standards for employer sponsored benefits- like paid sick time. The task force was formed by the Legislature after activists in Orange County tried to get a paid sick time initiative on the 2012 ballot.

Over four months of meetings the task force heard testimony from business leaders, economists and concerned citizens.

Restaurant worker Gloria Lewis told the panel sick time was important not just for employees- but also for the sake of everyone who eats in a restaurant.

But Samantha Hunter Padgett, the general counsel for the Florida Retail Federation, said allowing local governments to set requirements for benefits would create a hodgepodge of regulation and increase the cost of doing business.

On Thursday, the task force voted 8 -2 to recommend the state government not set minimum mandatory employer sponsored benefits- and it said the state should pre-empt local governments from doing so.

Organize Now is one of the groups which lobbied to get paid sick time on the ballot in Orange County.

In a statement, Executive Director Stephanie Porta described the task force’s recommendation as "especially disappointing." 

"We do not see this as the final decision in this matter," Porta said. 

"In the end it is the voter who determines what our legislature should do, and they will have the final say in the fight for Earned Sick Time in Florida." 

 

All active news articles