The nation’s most aggressive and generous paid leave policy is getting a rewrite after only a month on the books, but the changes are not enough to satisfy Chicago business leaders.
The quick fixes teed up for approval at Wednesday’s City Council meeting include a six-month delay — until July 1 — in the requirement that businesses give their Chicago employees 10 paid days off per year, including five sick days and five vacation days.
The changes would also give businesses 16 days, or “one pay period,” to remedy a problem with paid leave. But the so-called “cure period” would last only one year. After that, employees who believe they have been denied paid leave would be free to sue their employers.
“We’re giving a year and a half until private right of action is implemented. That should be more than enough time for businesses to fix their systems so that there aren’t any of these types of errors,” said Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd), chair of the City Council’s Committee on Workforce Development.
“The private right of action is standard in our paid sick leave, in our minimum wage ordinance. This is not anything new. We’re giving more and more time for businesses to be able to catch up here. And this is a respectable on-ramp to that.”
Yet another change would avoid putting Chicago behind the eight ball in the high-stakes competition for conventions and trade shows at McCormick Place and Navy Pier.
It would define “covered employees” in the paid leave ordinance as those who work a minimum of 80 hours in a 120-day period.
Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association, said he is “generally happy” with the convention industry change, which mirrors the language in the city’s sick leave and minimum wage ordinances.
“Originally, it was any employee who worked in the city of Chicago for two hours over the course of two weeks. And that’s where a lot of our convention customers or even just people who send business travelers here for individual meetings said, ‘Hold on a minute. Our employee spends two hours in the city of Chicago? They’re covered under this — even if they’re from Seattle and work in Seattle? That doesn’t make any sense,’ “ Jacobson said.
“So what they changed it to is, now you have to work at least 80 hours in the city of Chicago within four months. So, most business travelers will not be included in this. There is still some concern … around people who set up the conventions because they’re here for weeks in advance and they work more than 80 hours. But they’re all union, and there’s [collective bargaining agreement] carve-out in here. So almost every convention attendee is no longer lumped into this ordinance, which we’re very pleased about.”
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Jack Lavin and Rob Karr, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said they are not satisfied and believe the 16-day “cure period” to remedy mistakes in paid leave implementation is insufficient.
“We want a notice and cure period that [starts] when the company is told there’s been a mistake and they have a period of time to cure it. This does not do that. It’s when it happens. And many times, the company doesn’t know it happens until the employee tells them. It’s a mistake that was made. Maybe a mistake in how they calculated their pay,” Lavin said.
“When the employee tells the company, that’s when the number of days should start counting, so the employer has the time to correct the mistake. We suggested 30 days. They’re saying in the pay period. We think that’s too short. It’s a talking point that, in the real world, is useless. It does nothing to help small business. We simply wanted what was negotiated between business and labor that’s in the fair workweek ordinance, and they ignored our ask.”
Karr added: “The clock starts ticking when the violation occurs — not when the employer becomes aware of it. So how does an employer have a right to cure [the problem] if they don’t know a problem has occurred?”
