DEPARTMENT: San Antonio Metropolitan Health District
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Jennifer Herriott
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Briefing and presentation regarding proposed revisions to San Antonio’s Paid Sick Leave (PSL) law.
SUMMARY:
San Antonio’s Paid Sick Leave law requires that employee in San Antonio be provided earned paid sick time. City Council will receive a briefing and presentation on proposed changes to the PSL law as recommended by (1) the Paid Sick Leave Commission, and (2) the Ad Hoc Council Committee for Paid Sick Leave.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
San Antonio’s PSL ordinance was adopted by City Council in August 2018 following a petition drive that gathered more than 140,000 signatures in support of an earned paid sick leave ordinance. Council chose to adopt the ordinance as it was submitted with the intent to review the ordinance for possible revisions and clarifications after 6 months had passed, a process that is provided for in the City Charter.
To that end, Mayor Nirenberg formed an Ad Hoc Council Committee chaired by Councilmember Manny Pelaez. The rest of the Ad Hoc Committee is comprised of Councilmembers Melissa Cabello Havrda, Ana Sandoval, Roberto Treviño, and Rebecca Viagran. Mayor Nirenberg stated that “the ad hoc committee is charged with creating a Paid Sick Leave Commission and establishing a process that incorporates the input of all stakeholders to arrive at final recommendations for Council.”
As such, the Ad Hoc Committee formed the Paid Sick Leave Commission. The PSL Commission is comprised of representatives from local businesses, chambers of commerce, the legal community, and advocates for PSL. The PSL Commission met from April to September of 2019 to review and recommend revisions to the PSL ordinance. The Chair of the PSL Commission, Danielle Hargrove, Esq., presented the PSL Commission’s final recommendations on changes to San Antonio’s PSL law to the Ad Hoc Committee on Tuesday, September 10, 2019. The Commission’s key recommendations are as follows:
• All recommendations seek to stay true to focus on public health & ensure that the ordinance is more legally defensible; and
• Rename the law ‘sick and safe leave’; and
• Employer sizes removed in favor of equal applicability to all employers (‘one-size-fits-all approach’); and
• Baseline hours of sick and safe leave that an employee can accrue in one year is 56 hours across the board, no longer 48 hours (small employer) or 64 hours (medium/large employer); and
• No delayed implementation for employers with five (5) or fewer employees.
At the conclusion of the September 10, 2019 meeting, the Ad Hoc Council Committee decided to have another Ad Hoc Committee meeting on Monday, September 16, 2019 to further consider the PSL Commission’s recommendations and their impact.
The final recommended changes to the PSL law will be presented to the full City Council at the October 3, 2019 Regular City Council Meeting.
ISSUE:
Briefing and presentation regarding proposed revisions to Paid Sick Leave law.
ALTERNATIVES:
This item is for briefing purposes only.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The City has allocated $549,340 in the Metro Health FY20 budget to implement the PSL law.
RECOMMENDATION:
The final recommended changes to the PSL law will be presented to the full City Council at the October 3, 2019 Regular City Council Meeting.