New bill in PA House would erase many local paid-sick-leave laws

 

Earlier this year, the City of Philadelphia got this close to passing a bill requiring local employers to provide paid sick leave to employee.

PA Rep. Seth Grove (York County-R), wants to make sure there are no such close calls in the future.

Late last month, Rep. Grove introduced this bill in the PA House of Representatives, geared towards “providing statewide uniformity regarding vacation and other forms of leave mandated by political subdivisions.”

Specifically, Rep. Grove’s bill, if passed, will prohibit PA municipalities from “requiring an employer to provide an employee or class of employees with vacation or other forms of leave from employment, paid or unpaid, that is not required by Federal or State law, and may not require an employer to compensate an employee for any vacation or other forms of leave for which Federal or State law does not require the employee to be compensated.”

(The bill, if passed, would not affect paid-sick-leave laws for municipal employees, such as the one presently in effect in Philadelphia. Although, Philly’s law is broad enough to affect employers who do business with Philadelphia. So, who knows?)

In a September 16 memo, Rep. Grove lamented that local paid-sick-leave laws “create an uneven playing field for the businesses located inside the municipality,” while “businesses with more than one location are forced to comply with a variety of different and changing mandates.”

Brendan Fischer at PRWatch.org reports here that this bill is on the fast track in PA. Right now, the bill sits in Committee.

I’ll add updates as the bill advances through the House.