Saturday, June 13, 2009

Sick Leave Victory? Maybe Not

Illusory Tenant (and Esenberg) will be happy to tell you that I am not a lawyer.

Having said that, a review of Cooper's decision on the Milwaukee "Sick Leave" ordinance might give City of Milwaukee employers good reason to be concerned.

Cooper found that the ordinance was invalid on the grounds of the ordinance's inclusion of leave for 'domestic violence and stalking'- related activities. He said those elements are not properly "sick" leave items.

He also found that it was invalid because the summary statement printed on the ballot was not correctly written.

In other words, while MMAC asserted that the ordinance was a violation of FMLA, LMRA, and NLRB, Cooper did not find those assertions persuasive.

Nor did he find that the '9 days' allowance was unreasonable.

So the ordinance can be re-introduced with better summary language on the ballot and NOT including the 'domestic violence and stalking' language and Cooper would find it valid and enforceable.

And it's very likely that will happen. After all, who doesn't want free ice cream?

2 comments:

Scot1and said...

That was my take on it as well. The immediate question is whether the inclusion of domestic violence and stalking sick days can be severed from the ordinance. If I'm 9to5 that's my appellate issue. Give up the dime to get the dollar.

Dad29 said...

My impression was that it is NOT severable; has to do (again) with the text. Unless it specifically allowed separability (it did not), then nothing is severable.

They'll re-write it and the language for the ballot and bring it back in 2 years or less.