A group of Ohio businesses and trade associations this week joined together to fight a proposal mandating paid sick leave for Ohio employees.
Columbus-based http://dayton.bizjournals.com/dayton/related_content.html?topic=Ohioans%20to%20Protect%20Jobs%20and%20Fair%20Benefits - Ohioans to Protect Jobs and Fair Benefits called the proposed Ohio Healthy Families Act a "job-killer" that threatens the state economy.
"This proposal will make Ohio the only state in the union with a mandated paid sick leave law," John C. Mahaney, Jr., treasurer of Ohioans to Protect Jobs, said in a release. "It will significantly drive up the cost of doing business when we can least afford it, and it will kill our job-development efforts."
Ohio's unemployment rate grew to 6.6 percent in June, up from 6.3 percent in May, the http://dayton.bizjournals.com/dayton/gen/Ohio_Department%20of%20Job%20and%20Family%20Services_A6B7B9DDA44E4D2BA6E758ED737EDAD3.html - Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said this week.
Mahaney contended that Ohio businesses, particularly small enterprises, could not withstand the proposals' provisions that "threaten pay, benefits and jobs." If passed as a statewide initiative Nov. 4, the Healthy Families proposal would create a law that requires employers with 25 or more workers to provide seven days of paid sick leave annually for employees working 30 hours or more a week. There would also be prorated paid sick leave for part-time workers. Sick leave could be used for a physical or mental illness, doctor appointments and care of children, parents or spouse with a medical need.
Ohioans for Healthy Families , the coalition leading the ballot drive, is composed of labor, community and health-care groups. It hoped state lawmakers would pass a sick leave bill, but the Republican-controlled legislature never took up the proposal.
To date, the group has collected more than 200,000 signatures to be submitted by the August deadline to get the measure on the November ballot, said Dale Butland, communications director for the coalition.
"People understand this is a matter of basic fairness," he said. "People should not lose a job or a paycheck" over sick leave.
The coalition cites government findings that show 2.2 million Ohio workers are unable to take a paid sick day when they are ill. That hurts workers, families, communities and businesses, Butland told Business First in May.
Mahaney said in a release the employers worry the cost to implement the initiative would require businesses to make up the difference by shifting money away from other benefits, such as health care, curtailing raises or cutting jobs.
Ohioans to Protect Jobs and Fair Benefits said it would wage a "vigorous grassroots campaign" throughout Ohio to defeat the proposal at the polls.