13 September 2018 City of San Antonio Texas joins Austin in passing paid sick leave ordinance; court ruling puts Austin's paid sick leave ordinance on hold The San Antonio, Texas city council recently passed an ordinance (2018-08-16-0620) modifying City Code, Chapter 15 (Health) such that, effective August 1, 2019, employers of more than five employees operating in the city will be required to provide paid sick leave to their employees. Employers with five or fewer employees will have a delayed effective date of August 1, 2021. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg is expected to approve the ordinance. As we previously reported, earlier this year the Austin, Texas city council also passed a paid sick leave ordinance that, effective October 1, 2018, would require employers operating in the city to provide paid sick leave to their employees. However, business organizations, joined by the Texas attorney general, have filed a lawsuit against the ordinance; and on August 17, 2018, the Texas Third Court of Appeals temporarily stayed the ordinance's effective date until the court makes a decision on the lawsuit. (EY Payroll NewsFlash Vol. 19, #059, 3-26-2018.) Effective August 1, 2019, private San Antonio employers with more than 15 employees must provide a minimum of 64 hours of paid sick leave a year to their employees by allowing them to accrue one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Employers with 15 or fewer employees must provide 48 hours per employee per year, unless the employer chooses a higher limit. The mandatory effective date of the paid sick leave requirement is delayed to August 1, 2021 for employers with five or fewer employees. Eligible employees are those who perform at least 80 hours of work within the city within a calendar year.?? Earned paid sick leave must begin accruing as of the effective date of the ordinance or upon hiring, whichever occurs later. Earned paid sick leave must be available to employees as soon as it is accrued; an employer may restrict an employee from using earned paid sick time during the employee's first 60 days of employment if the employer establishes that the employee's term of employment is at least one year. The employer must pay earned paid sick time in an amount equal to what the employee would have earned if the employee had worked the scheduled work time, exclusive of any overtime premium, tips, or commissions, but no less than the state minimum wage. An employer is required to allow employees to carryover unused earned paid sick time of up to the yearly cap to the next calendar year unless the employer awards the full amount of earned paid sick leave at the beginning of each year (known as frontloading). The law does not require any employer to allow an employee to use earned paid sick time on more than eight days in a year. An employer must reinstate a separated employee's earned/unused leave if the employee returns to work after a separation of not more than six months.? On no less than a monthly basis, employers will be required to provide a statement to employees showing the amount of available earned paid sick time. The statement may be given on paper or electronically.??An employer who provides an employee handbook to its employees must include a notice of an employee's rights and remedies under the paid sick leave law in that handbook. Employers must also post in a conspicuous place a notice as provided by the city. A petition was submitted to the San Antonio city council on May 24, 2018, and subsequently certified by the city clerk on August 2, 2018, by activist organizations such as Move Texas to place a paid sick leave initiative on the November 2018 ballot. Under the city's charter, the city council was then required to either pass the ordinance themselves or place the petition on the ballot. In July 2018, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office warned San Antonio city leaders that the Texas minimum wage law already preempts municipalities from enacting ordinances requiring employers to provide paid sick leave. "We write to inform you that no matter the Council's decision or the result of any ballot initiative, Texas law preempts a municipal paid sick leave ordinance," Paxton said. The letter explained that because the ordinance would increase wages for the workweek beyond those permitted by the Texas Minimum Wage Act, the state law preempts such a measure. Austin was the first city in Texas to pass a paid sick leave ordinance, followed now by San Antonio. Texas state legislators continue to vow to pass legislation in 2019 that would preempt Austin, San Antonio and other Texas cities/localities from enforcing paid sick leave ordinances.
Document ID: 2018-1805 | |||||||||
