ARIZONA

Arizona sued over ban on cities mandating paid sick leave

Macaela J Bennett
The Republic | azcentral.com
A new state law that prohibits municipalities from enacting ordinances that require businesses to provide paid employee sick leave is being challenged in court by more than 30 state legislators and five members of city councils from around Arizona.

A new state law governing paid employee sick leave has prompted a lawsuit by more than 30 state legislators and members of several city councils across Arizona.

Tempe, Tucson and several other municipalities were debating such ordinances when Gov. Doug Ducey warned in January that cities adopting employment ordinances would lose state shared revenue.

The lawsuit, filed last month, argues the law contradicts cities' rights to legislate protections for workers and families.

"Local jurisdiction over wages and benefits makes sense because economic conditions across communities vary," said Eva Putzova, a Flagstaff councilwoman and plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Tucson Councilwoman Regina Romero, also a plaintiff, said cities should be able to discuss with local businesses what regulations would work for them and their employees.

"This law had a chilling effect on local government," Romero said. "In democracy you can discuss and compromise, but this was not a democratic thing to do."

Plaintiffs: Our argument has won before

The plaintiffs said they are optimistic about their chances in court for two reasons.

First, Arizona voters passed a law in 2006 that raised the state minimum wage and gave cities the authority to regulate their own wages and benefits.

The Legislature can't change a law passed by voters without meeting certain requirements, the plaintiffs said. And the Legislature didn't meet those requirements, so the new law is unconstitutional, the lawsuit states.

Second, the state last year settled a lawsuit brought by the Flagstaff Living Wage Coalition in which it made the same argument.

The Legislature passed a law in 2013 forbidding municipalities from raising  minimum wages independent of the state. But the coalition, which favored raising the minimum wage, sued the state. In the settlement, the state admitted it violated the 2006 law.

While the settlement only dealt with wages and not benefits such as paid sick leave, the plaintiffs in the current lawsuit believe the state should view the new law the same way.

"In both cases, the legal argument is the same," Putzova said. "It is bothersome that the Legislature continues to ignore the law they don't like."

If the new law is overturned, several city officials said, they hope to resume conversations about employee protections like paid-sick-leave benefits. They would join a growing number of cities nationwide adopting such laws.

Paid sick leave gaining support nationwide 

Five states, 27 cities and Washington D.C. have paid-sick-leave laws, according to a June report by the National Partnership for Women and Families, a progressive, D.C.-based non-profit.

And almost 90 percent of voters nationwide said they support giving all workers the opportunity to earn paid sick time, based on a poll by Lake Research Partners last year.

There is no federal requirement that businesses provide sick-leave benefits, but cities and states are trending toward adopting them.

Last September, President Barack Obama marked an important win for supporters of mandatory sick leave. He used an executive order to require federal contractors to provide paid-sick-leave benefits for their employees. The president noted 163 countries already guarantee such benefits.

Study: No sick leave for nearly half of Arizona workers

Advocates for sick-leave benefits argue they increase employee productivity, protect public health, reduce companies' turnover costs and cut health-care costs.

A report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research details many of these findings.

It found that 60 percent of workers nationally are allowed to take paid sick leave. Of those, only half used it. For those who did take advantage of it, they took off two days on average. This shows employees are not apt to abuse paid sick time, the report argues.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit said the most alarming finding is that workers who prepare and serve food are the least likely to be able to take a sick day.

Only 19 percent of workers in food preparation have the option to stay home from work when they feel ill. And paid sick days are "especially uncommon" in jobs where workers have frequent contact with the public, according to the Institute for Women's Policy research.

 

Opposition to paid sick leave 

When Councilwoman and plaintiff Lauren Kuby led the effort to introduce sick-leave regulations in Tempe, she drew strong opposition from businesses and the Tempe Chamber of Commerce. The business community said the law would slow economic growth.

Forcing businesses to offer paid sick leave would put them at a disadvantage with competitors operating outside the city limits, said Mary Ann Miller, Tempe Chamber of Commerce President and CEO.

The Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, concluded in a report that businesses forced to implement paid sick leave often decrease other employee benefits and hours and raise prices to offset the costs.

$12-an-hour minimum wage in Arizona? Supporters say they're halfway there

Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, who sponsored the bill at issue, defended the law, saying it will protect businesses from complex regulations that differ from city to city.

"Saddling businesses with a patchwork of regulations regarding compensation and benefits that vary from one city to the next will take away from their ability to create jobs," Mesnard said in an email. "That’s bad for business and bad for Arizona."

But some Valley business owners who support paid sick leave, and say they offer it to their own employees, argue lower profits are no excuse for denying workers sick-leave benefits.

"I don't want to live in a community where a parent can't stay home with their sick child," said Bob Sommer, Changing Hands Bookstore co-owner. "It makes good business sense to offer paid sick leave, and that's the bottom line for me. It's the right thing to do, so do it."

What's next?

The state will respond to the lawsuit in the next few weeks. The state could file a motion to dismiss it altogether, according to Kuby.

But the plaintiffs said they are confident they have a good chance of winning.

"The state Legislature cannot blatantly ignore the will of the people," Putzova said. "There’s no reason we shouldn’t take care of our hardworking families."

Arizona bill blocking city rules on employee benefits advances

Reach Macaela Bennett at mbennett@arizonarepublic.com or follow her on Twitter @Macaela_.