(Credit: City of Austin)
Austin Mayor Steve Adler is not very concerned with a recent decision from Texas’ 3rd Court of Appeals, which put a temporary block on Austin’s paid sick leave ordinance on Friday. The city council passed the ordinance months ago, but it has yet to take effect. But as far as Adler is concerned, there’s nothing for the city council to be concerned about.
“The ruling on Friday really had nothing to do with the merits, and the court said that,” Adler told the Todd and Don Show.
Adler claims it’s right and just to force a private business to offer all employees paid sick time because it’s ultimately a public safety issue.
“You know, the state legislature passed a seat belt law. There are laws that are passed to promote the public safety, generally, and I think that’s what this one is.”
11 business groups have sued to stop the implementation of the ordinance, claiming it will violate state law because it’s akin to raising the minimum wage. Other critics say a forced sick leave ordinance will lead to more employees taking advange of it through erroneous claims of being sick.
Adler says, based on other cities who have implemented similar ordinances, that won’t happen.
“People talk about potential harm from this, and I recognize that, but what they find is that people don’t go out and use all of the sick time they have by making up false excuses; the utilization is just not as high as people anticipate.”
Following Friday’s ruling, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued this statement:
“The minimum amount of compensation established for workers, including the minimum amount of paid time off, is a decision entrusted by the Texas Constitution solely to the Texas Legislature,” he said. “I’m confident that an appeals court will recognize that the law expressly preempts cities from passing different laws simply because they disagree with the judgment of the state’s elected representatives.”
The Austin City Council hopes to begin enforcing the ordinance on October 1.
