"Our labor law attorney believes the chances
of this passing is high due to our democratically-controlled congress and to
combat this he has advised us to immediately offer a system of 3 days of paid
time off per year. He claims by having this existing system we will be able to
avoid having to go to a system later of 7 paid days off. I have researched the
Internet and cannot find much on this to validate that my attorney’s
advice is sound. Due to the fact going to 3 paid days off might cost us an
additional $30,000 or so, I am very cautious about enacting this without more
information."
Several members responded that their own labor
attorneys had advised otherwise -- that such a move might even expose the company to
providing the 7 mandated sick leave days in addition to those currently
provided by company policy.
Given the legislative climate for increasing
worker benefits at the expense of employers, there is almost zero probability
of this measure not passing, and President Obama will likely sign it so fast
the suction will draw other productivity-killing legislation into its
wake.
The general consensus among members and their
legal advisors is that you may as well dust off your employee manual and begin working on your paid leave
policies to provide 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
Of course, there's always some lag time between enacting legislation and its
effective date, so it's something to get onto the HR task list, allowing some
lead time to develop as effective a means of compliance as
possible.
