Paid Sick Days and the Council
November 17th, 2009
Thirty-eight of the 51 City Council members have signed on to a bill, Intro 1059, that would require private employers in the city to give their worker paid sick days. But the most influential member — Council Speaker Christine Quinn — said she still has not decided whether to support the measure.
At her press conference yesterday, Quinn said she and her staff are still researching the question.
Beyond its significance for workers without paid sick days and their employers, the issue could be a bit of a political bellwether. Some of the new, more progressive members of the council — and the Working Families Party, which backed many of them — have made paid sick leave a top priority. And in interviews with Gotham Gazette’s Courtney Gross, some of these members expressed concerns about Quinn’s leadership.
During her four-year tenure Quinn traditionally has not allowed any measure she does not support to come to the council floor for a vote. Asked if she would let the full council say aye or nay on this one, Quinn was again, noncommittal. It is, she said, going through the legislative process.
Meanwhile the council’s Committee on Civil Service and Labor is slated to hold hearings on the bill this afternoon.
For more, including arguments pro and con, see
The Fight Over Paid Sick Leave.
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