New paid sick leave mandates scheduled to take effect this year in St. Paul and Minneapolis face a potential new challenge: the state of Minnesota.
A House job growth committee heard lengthy testimony Thursday from dozens of business and labor advocates on either side of a bill that would strip Minnesota cities of the ability to impose citywide wage and benefit mandates in excess of state law. The bill passed the majority-Republican committee 13-9 along party lines.
The four-hour evening hearing packed in a sometimes-testy audience of workers and advocates associated with the faith-based anti-poverty group ISAIAH, the AFL-CIO, the CTUL fast food workers and janitorial union, TakeAction Minnesota and other progressive action groups. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and retail, grocery, construction, trucking and staffing associations were largely represented by lobbyists.
Advocates have pointed to the importance of uniformity in state labor law.
“There are 854 cities in the state of Minnesota,” said committee chair Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, the bill’s lead House sponsor. “It is unrealistic and unproductive to have 854 different labor standards.”
The DFLers on the committee called the bill an about-face for Republicans, who have supported local rule-making.
“With a flip of a moment, we are trying to take away the power of local government,” said state Rep. Rena Moran, DFL-St. Paul. “This is really shameful. I can’t believe this is coming from your party — that you are trying to take away local control from communities.”
Speaking for the opposition, Rose Roach, executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association, said she spent months co-chairing an “earned sick and safe time” committee in St. Paul last year, which resulted in worker protections that were unanimously adopted by the St. Paul City Council. “And it now appears outside corporate interests are interested in doing an end-run around the will of the people,” she said.
Garofalo’s so-called “pre-emption” bill would block four types of potential local regulations related to minimum wage rules, mandatory paid leave, employee scheduling ordinances and minimum benefits or working conditions. It does not pre-empt city government salaries or contracts.
Bishop southeastern Lutheran synod: proposed legislation "takes away local control" and many believe in small, local pic.twitter.com/kEyLsXYjcX
— Frederick Melo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) February 2, 2017
Opponents said the legislation would eliminate important worker safeguards that the state has failed to provide. Several Minneapolis City Council members have advocated for a new citywide minimum wage that would exceed the state floor of $7.75 for small businesses and $9.50 for larger employers, though the conversation is less far along in St. Paul.
Last year, St. Paul and Minneapolis individually hammered out paid sick leave mandates that will apply to private employers throughout their respective cities. Both sets of rules are scheduled to take effect later this year and could be overturned by the proposed legislation.
“I have a 6-year-old son,” said McDonald’s restaurant worker Guillermo Lindsay, a member of CTUL, while addressing the committee. “You’re telling me if you take away my sick time, I won’t be able to take my son to the doctor.”
“I’m lucky to have access to paid sick time in my workplace, but in St. Paul there are 72,000 workers who don’t,” said Associate Pastor Javen Swanson of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul.
PATCHWORK RULES?
The St. Paul and Minneapolis sick leave ordinances, however, do not entirely match. Among key differences, Minneapolis chose to exempt “micro businesses” that employ fewer than six workers, but St. Paul did not. Lobbyists for industry associations told the committee that as more cities pass their own rules, they fear a complicated “patchwork” of new labor standards that would be virtually impossible to adhere to without making honest mistakes.
Retail, construction, staffing and grocery associations seek uniform wage/benefit/labor rules, not city "patchwork" pic.twitter.com/eJnA2RVsWy
— Frederick Melo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) February 3, 2017
“When you combine these local mandates with an increasingly mobile workforce … they have to do these manual overrides of their HR systems,” said Jill Larson, a deputy executive director with the Minnesota Business Partnership.
And mistakes can triggers fines or lawsuits, with business owners potentially on the hook for legal costs, depending upon the style of ordinance.
Tim Doherty, of Doherty Staffing, said staffing associations employ 60,000 workers in Minnesota, and they frequently cross city lines from week to week. Cities adopting different labor standards would add up to a compliance and administrative nightmare, he said.
But Dr. Stefan Pomrenke, a family practice physician in St. Paul, said many of his patients are low-wage workers who have to choose between necessities such as feeding their families and paying rent, and seeking medical attention for cuts and illnesses that can spiral into serious health conditions.
Rep. Tim Mahoney, DFL-St. Paul, who wore a pin with the emblem “I (Heart) Local Democracy,” called the Garofalo bill political grandstanding.
“He knows this bill is not going to go anywhere at the governor’s office,” Mahoney said.
Pointing to cost-of-living differences between urban and rural areas, DFL Gov. Mark Dayton said in a December interview, before the specifics of the legislation were known, that “it’s got to be a more reasoned and balanced proposal before I have any interest in it.”
The Senate companion to the “pre-emption” bill will be heard Monday afternoon before the Republican-majority Committee on Jobs and Economic Growth.
The Main Street Alliance of Minnesota has scheduled a speak-out beforehand featuring business owners who support paid sick leave, including the owners of Ward 6 Food and Drink in St. Paul and Minuteman Press in Minneapolis.
David Montgomery contributed to this report.