Healthy Families Act

I recently attended a Legislative Breakfast presented by the Logan County Chamber of Commerce.  Speaking at the event was Andy Doehrel, President of the Ohio Chamber, State Representative Tony Core and Congressman for the 4th District Jim Jordan.  There was discussion of the various ballot issues that will or may appear on the November ballot but the bulk of the discussion was related to the Healthy Families Act (Download proposed_legislation_heathy_families_act.pdf) . 

OK, here are the specs of the legislation:

• The legislation would apply to all Ohio businesses that employ 25 or more people.
• Seven (7) days of paid sick leave annually for employees working 30 hours or more a week.
• A pro rata amount of paid sick leave annually for employees working less than 30 hours a week.
• Sick leave could be used for absences resulting from physical or mental illness, injury or medical condition;  obtaining professional medical diagnosis or preventive medical care; or for the purpose of caring for a child, parent or spouse who has physical or mental illness, injury or medical condition or needs a diagnosis or preventive medical care.
• Would require the employer to grant an oral or written request for paid sick leave as long as the request includes a reason for the leave.
• Employees shall make "reasonable efforts" to schedule leave in a manner that does not unduly disrupt operations of the employer.
• The employer may not require the employees to provide certification from a health care professional unless the absence covers more than three (3) consecutive work days.
• If leave is less than a normal workday the leave should be counted on an hourly basis.  If the request is less than an hour it should be counted in the smallest increment that the employer's payroll system uses to account for absences or use of other leave.
• An employer with a leave policy providing paid leave options shall not be required to modify such policy, if such policy offers an employee the option at the employee's discretion to take paid leave that is at least equivalent to the sick leave described in the legislation.
• An employer may not eliminate or reduce leave in existence on the date of enactment of the act, regardless of the type of such leave, in order to comply with provisions of the act.
• No employer shall interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of or the attempted exercise of any provision in the act.
• Employers shall retain records documenting hours worked by employees and paid sick leave taken by employees, for a period of three (3) years, and shall allow the director of the department of commerce access to such records to monitor compliance with the requirements of the act.

 Ohioans for Healthy Families are the group that put this forward.  Their contention is that there are 2.2 million Ohioans who have no paid sick days.  Many who do have paid sick days have unreasonable restrictions on the use of the sick days which require them to work while sick or while their children are sick.  The current system forces many employees to choose between their paychecks and taking care themselves or their families. 

This legislation is also backed by organized labor.  It is becoming more and more difficult to to negotiate contracts that benefit labor.  If sick leave can be mandated then there is one more thing they have to bargain for come contract time.

Finding groups opposed to the legislation is not difficult.  Even Governor Strickland is opposed to the legislation as written as evidenced in a recent Columbus Dispatch article where he is seeking compromise the keep the legislation off the November ballot. He contends, and I agree, if this goes to the ballot it will pass.  The Ohio Chamber has launched an employee communications strategy and if you want more information on that email the Ohio Chamber and put "Employee Communications Strategy" in the subject line.

Clearly the proposed system will make it more difficult and costly to do business in the state of Ohio.  The biggest component of most businesses cost are in the personnel lines of the P&L.  If you employee 25 or more people you are mandated to provide seven additional sick days to employees and your cost just went up.  While this is up for debate, as I read the legislation you would need to provide the seven days in addition to what you already offer unless the current system is exactly the same or more liberal than the requirements in the legislation.  Most policies are somewhat more restrictive than what is laid out in the legislation thus you will end up adding the seven to your existing policy (remember you can't adjust your current policy to accommodate this either).

This is truly a "take off for whatever reason you want and whenever you want" system.  While a medical oriented reason is required the business can't verify the reason unless it lasts over three consecutive days.  Also, when possible the employee is to give reasonable efforts to schedule the time off so as not to disrupt the employer's operation.    Reasonable is one of those legal terms that is interpreted differently.  If you are an employer are you going to challenge someone wanting to take off and debate the reasonableness of the request given the potential penalties and legal cost that it might cause?  Probably not.   

There will be an increased record keeping requirement.  While this may not be as big a deal for an Ohio Based company if the company is based outside of Ohio they will need to implement record keeping specific to Ohio.  I will also say that more than likely if there are locations in multiple states there are different requirements relating to HR record keeping so it may not be that big a deal and they may be used to it.

I agree,obviously, with the business side of the argument.  I feel that successful business creates a successful economy for all.  However, the Healthy Families Act creates a challenge to doing business in Ohio.  If this passes it may make it more difficult to recruit companies to Ohio but I don't think it will be a sole reason for a company not to locate here.  There are a myriad of factors considered when selecting a location and all have to be dealt with in the recruitment process.

If this is enacted it will also be even more important for management and labor to work together to foster a positive work environment so that employees know how they are part of the success of the organization and how leave impacts the business.  If everyone feels a part of the success then there will likely be less abuses of the sick leave policy.

 

 

Comments

[Michael Bowers]

Note...This iniative was pulled off the Ohio ballot by the sponsors on 9/3. Possible federal effort in the future.

[Zazu]

Good post.