Vermont Business Magazine In an unusual move Thursday, the Vermont Senate has decided to revisit H187, the paid sick leave bill, despite overwhelming passage of the legislation Wednesday. The sticking point is a floor amendment before Wednesday's final vote that exempted businesses with five or fewer employees until 2018 (the "Campion amendment"). That provision would thus exclude initially many of the workers the bill is intended to help, but it would help soften the financial blow to these very small businesses. The House version passed last year did not have this provision. The vote Thursday calls for the Senate to reconsider the amendment next Wednesday. The Senate bill as passed could have triggered a Conference Committee and a fight with the House. The reconsideration of the amendment was initiated by Senator Bill Doyle (R-Washington) who voted in favor of the measure Wednesday.
Pro-sickleave advocate Rights and Democracy (www.radvt.org) suggests upward of 13,000 workers would be excluded with the exemption.
Those Senators who voted for the bill Wednesday: Ashe, Ayer, Balint, Baruth, Bray, Campbell, Campion, Cummings, Doyle, Kitchel, Lyons, MacDonald, McCormack, Mullin, Nitka, Pollina, Sears, Sirotkin, Snelling, White, Zuckerman. Those Senators who voted in the negative were: Benning, Collamore, Degree, Flory, Mazza, Rodgers, Starr, Westman.
The Healthy Workplaces bill (H187) passed the Senate with a vote of 21-8 on Wednesday afternoon. An amendment that would have exempted all small businesses failed on the floor. The Healthy Workplaces bill (H187) passed the House last year with a vote of 72-63.
“Small businesses in Vermont, regardless of size, cannot tolerate any more mandates from law makers looking for a feel good sound bite to play during their next election. Mandating paid leave will have consequences for small businesses, and for their employees, regardless of what proponents would like Vermonters to believe,” according to National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) representative, Kris Jolin. “We will not tolerate politicians claiming they advocated on small businesses behalf by throwing in a 5 or fewer employee exemption because it still damages a majority of our members.”
Jolin said the NFIB remains the singular business group in the state of Vermont to publically oppose the mandate, regardless of exemptions.
He said it remains to be seen whether or not the most vulnerable of small businesses will be excluded from the mandate. However NFIB remains adamantly opposed to mandatory paid leave, in any form.
“The Senate had the opportunity to stand up for small businesses and vote down this mandate yesterday. Unfortunately, once again, they failed to advocate for our state’s largest employer. Mandating paid leave will not only cost small businesses revenue that they do not have, but this will cost employees jobs that will no longer be available when Mom and Pop stores cannot afford the hard working people that they treasure dearly,” concluded Jolin.
Annie Accettella, Paid Sick Days Campaign Manager, said, "The legislative process has many twists and turns, but we remain committed to fighting for the rights that Vermont's working families deserve. We hope the Senators will stand with us."