Legal Challenge Emerges For Austin Paid Sick Leave Ordinance

AUSTIN, TX — A conservative think tank has teamed up with a coalition of business organizations in filing a lawsuit aimed at preventing the city's landmark sick leave ordinance passed in February from taking effect.

In a Tuesday announcement, the Texas Public Policy Foundation said they are representing the National Federation of Independent Business, the Texas Association of Business and the American Staffing Association in mounting the legal challenge. The ordinance set to take effect Oct. 1 requires businesses operating within Austin city limits to provide up to eight days of paid sick leave annually to their employees.

"With its mandatory paid sick leave ordinance, the City of Austin once again violates Texas state law and infringes upon the rights of Austin businesses protected by the Texas Constitution," Robert Henneke, the group's general counsel and director, wrote in a statement. The city's ordinance is preempted by the Texas Minimum Wage Act. Furthermore, the city lacks evidence to support any legitimate governmental interest that would support imposing this regulatory burden on all business owners."

Supporters of the measure framed the issue as a civil rights one while noting a uniform paid sick leave policy would realize a $4.5 million annual net savings for businesses in preventing employee turnover. But opponents of the move see it as a draconian bit of added regulation that would only add costs to already challenged firms, particularly small businesses.

Several conservative state legislators also have telegraphed efforts to introduce bills in next year's legislative session to overturn the ordinance.

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Austin City Council member Greg Casar, who spearheaded efforts in getting the ordinance passed, reacted to the lawsuit seeking to halt the ordinance from taking effect.

"Every day, Austinites fought and won paid sick days because it’s a common-sense approach to address our serious health and safety needs," Casar said in a prepared statement. "In today’s lawsuit, anti-worker groups admitted that they don’t comprehend why paid sick days are so important to everyday people. If the big business lobby talked to anyone besides their expensive attorneys, maybe they would understand why working parents sometimes need to take a sick day."

He labeled the Texas Public Policy Foundation an "extremist" organization working against the working class: "Extremist organizations like the Texas Public Policy Foundation have made it clear that they want to keep working people down— the United States is the only advanced economy in the world that doesn’t require paid leave as a basic workplace standard. Working families in Austin aren’t going to let these out of touch groups take away our right to self-determination or our right to a fair workplace. I, like hundreds of thousands of other Austinites, am incredibly excited for workers in this city to start earning paid sick days on October 1st.”

Officials at Work Strong Austin — a coalition of businesses that supported the paid sick leave ordinance — condemned the latest effort to scuttle the historic measure.

“After losing a historic vote that made Austin the first city in the U.S. South to require paid sick time, special interest groups linked to the Koch Brothers and Greg Abbott are now seeking to undermine the democratic process and take away this basic human right and public health protection right from 223,000 working families," Work Strong Austin officials said in a prepared statement. "We know Austin residents will ultimately prevail over this frivolous lawsuit, but let there be no doubt: today's announcement is cowardly, desperate, and shameful.”

Ahead of the city council vote approving the ordinance, Work Strong Austin members wrote a letter in support of the measure. "No one should have to choose between paying the bills or taking care of themselves or a loved one when they’re sick," the letter read in part. "The City of Austin can prevent the escalation of illness and transmission to others through a citywide paid sick days policy. A citywide paid sick days policy will also help level the playing field so that employers who do the right thing by their employees won’t be at a competitive disadvantage. Giving working people the time to take care of themselves and their loved ones when they’re sick is good for Austin families and our community as a whole."

The letter was signed by several prominent members of the Austin business community, including:

• Charlie Jackson, CEO, Acceleros
• Meaghan Perkins, Director of Operations, Beetnik Foods
• Jodi Mozeika, Business Team Leader, Black Star Co-op Pub & Brewery
• Matt Botticelli, Co-founder andvCo-owner, Botticelli’s South Congress
• Max Hoberman, President and Founder, Certain Affinity
• Eric Goff, Co-founder and CFO, East Side Compost Pedallers
• Philip Flesher, Founder and Owner, Exstratus
• Walter Moreau, Executive Director, Foundation Communities
• Joseph Strickland, Co-founder andvCo-owner, Home Slice Pizza
• Alejandro Ruelas, Co-founder, Latinworks
• Adam Orman, Co-founder andcCo-owner, L’Oca d’Oro
• James Aldrete, Owner, Message Audience & Presentation, Inc.
• Shawn Cirkiel, Founder and Owner, Parkside Projects (Parkside, The Backspace, Olive and June, Bullfight, 800 Congress, Jugo)
• Regina Rogoff, CEO, People’s Community Clinic
• Amanda May, Founder and Owner, The Purple Fig Eco Cleaning Company
• Kelly White, CEO, The SAFE Alliance
• Beau Armstrong, CEO, Stratus Properties, Inc.
• Valerie Ward, Founder and Co-Owner, Sweet Ritual
• Bonnie Cullum, Managing Director, The Vortex, Butterfly Bar
• Matt Wright, Co-founder and Co-owner, Wright Brothers Brew & Brew
• Dan Gillotte, General Manager, Wheatsville Food Co-op
• Cary Ferchill, Former CEO, World Satellite Network Inc.

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