Paid sick leave bill would take away protections that workers deserve

Every community is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members.

Are people patching together minimum-wage jobs able to take a sick day without losing the money they need to buy groceries or pay the utility bill?

Are construction workers laboring in Austin’s triple-digit summertime heat guaranteed a chance to take a break and grab some water?

Are the people who have already paid for their worst moments — those leading to a criminal conviction, sometimes years ago — given the chance to move on and prove their value to a potential employer?

And do all of us get the same shot at job opportunities and employee benefits, regardless of who we love or how we express our sexual identity?

With the state of Texas remaining silent on these issues, the city of Austin has adopted policies providing these workplace protections — and codifying, we would argue, basic decency. Politicians frequently talk about family values. These measures go beyond the rhetoric and give real support to workers trying to provide for themselves and their loved ones.

Now some lawmakers want to wipe out such worker protections in any Texas city that offers them. We urge voters to press their legislators to reject Senate Bill 15.

ALSO READ: Austin’s paid sick leave is worth fighting for

SB 15 by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, started with a single focus: Strike down city ordinances, like the one passed in Austin and tied up in the courts, requiring employers to give workers paid sick leave.

From the outset, though, the broad language of the bill reached into other areas. It prohibited cities from having any rules affecting workplace “scheduling practices,” which could undo Austin’s 2010 ordinance requiring that construction workers be granted a rest break of at least 10 minutes for every four hours worked. That Austin measure, which earned unanimous City Council approval, arose amid concerns about construction site conditions after three men died in 2009 in a scaffolding collapse at a West Campus high-rise.

Then, in committee, SB 15 grew worse.

Creighton added new wording to explicitly strike down measures like Austin's 2016 "fair chance hiring" ordinance, which bars local employers from screening out applicants by asking up front if they have a criminal record. Austin’s ordinance prohibits background checks until later in the hiring process, giving applicants a chance to first present their credentials and then explain, as needed, anything about their past. The measure puts into action something we value in Austin: Recognizing when people deserve a second chance.

Other important wording was removed from the bill. The original version of SB 15 said this law, if approved, would not affect city nondiscrimination ordinances. Creighton took out that language, sparking concern among LGBTQ advocates. Several cities, including Austin, have ordinances making it illegal for private employers to discriminate against gay and transgender people in hiring decisions or the provision of benefits — the kinds of workplace matters SB 15 says cities can’t regulate.

Creighton told the Dallas Morning News the wording wasn’t needed because the bill is about paid sick leave, not nondiscrimination ordinances. If that’s the case, why not keep the language protecting nondiscrimination ordinances, just to avoid any misapplications of the law?

TELL US ABOUT IT: Click here to submit a letter to the editor

We find it telling that the dropped language in SB 15 was cheered by the U.S. Pastor Council, a conservative Christian organization that sued Austin last fall in the hopes of overturning the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance. The group dropped its lawsuit a few days ago, but says it is still looking for a way to undo Austin’s ordinance.

Perhaps in SB 15, they’ve found it.

We recognized months ago, when the 3rd Court of Appeals overturned Austin’s paid sick leave measure, that a battle was yet to come at the Legislature. We should all be alarmed by the growth of SB 15, however, into a broader assault on a range of worker protections.

Yes, a job is a means to a paycheck. But the ability to work, to provide for a household, can also be a source of purpose and pride, if employees are treated with the dignity they deserve. Cities have a right to create higher standards than the floor set by state and federal law.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who endorsed SB 15 last month, described paid sick leave as "a great strategy" for businesses to use as a "recruiting tool," not something that should be imposed as a government mandate. Unfortunately, he's lost sight of the people who actually need the sick days. For workers, paid sick leave is not a perk but a necessity.

Pitched battles over local control are often framed as a tug-of-war between cities and the statehouse, but those who pay the price in SB 15 would be our neighbors. The restaurant worker who shouldn’t come in with the flu. The construction worker toiling in the heat, building the housing our city so desperately needs. And all kinds of workers who embody the city’s spirit of inclusivity and second chances.

SB 15 pulls the rug out from underneath them all. Those who value these workers should stand with them in opposing this bill.