Ohio’s Paid Sick Leave Issue Likely Off of November Ballot

The proposed Ohio Healthy Families Act, which would have required many employers in Ohio to provide seven paid sick days to their employees, will likely be pulled from the November 4, 2008 ballot.  

Members of the coalition who supported the Act and submitted petitions to place the Act on the ballot announced today that they will ask the Secretary of State to remove the sick leave issue from the ballot. The president of the Service Employees International Union District 1199, Becky Williams, spoke for the coalition at a press conference this morning. Williams said the coalition will push for a separate federal law mandating paid sick leave. Governor Ted Strickland and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, support such legislation.

According to Williams, the Act is being removed from the ballot in part because of the unavoidable and divisive battle that would have ensued over the Act this fall. Governor Strickland and Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher had attempted throughout this summer to reach compromise legislation with the coalition. In August, Governor Strickland and Lieutenant Governor Fisher announced that their compromise efforts had failed and vowed to oppose the Act. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce and members of Ohio’s business community, some of whom formed an opposition coalition, also contested the Act.

The Act would have required employers in Ohio with 25 or more employees to provide full-time employees with seven paid sick days annually and allowed unused days to carry over to the following year. The Act would have prohibited employers from requiring documentation to support the need for sick leave of less than 4 days.

Please contact Jeffrey S. Shoskin, Raymond D. Neusch, or Eugene Droder III if you have any questions about the Act and the recent developments surrounding it.  

Posted by: Eugene Droder III

Categories: Ohio