House Hearing Held on AGC-Opposed Mandatory Paid Sick Leave Legislation

This morning, the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing on the Healthy Families Act (H.R. 2460/S. 1152).  This legislation would require employers with 15 or more employees to allow all employees to earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.  Workers would begin accruing leave time on their first day of employment and become eligible to use the time after 60 days. This approach would require a one-size-fits-all paid sick leave package of 56 hours and limit an employers' flexibility in creating a benefits package that would meet the needs of the construction industry's unique workforce.  In addition, this would have a significant bureaucratic impact on employers having to create a new system to track accruals of paid sick leave time.   The House Education and Labor Committee is expected to pass this bill sometime this summer.  Senate action is unclear at this point.   There are some rumors that this language could be incorporated into the overall health care reform debate currently being discussed on Capitol Hill.  AGC is a member of The National Coalition to Protect Family Leave, which is working on this legislation.