February 28, 2019      8:31 PM

Consternation among stakeholders as a new version emerges of a ban on government-mandated paid sick leave

Last minute changes include elimination of exemptions for nondiscrimination ordinances, drawing concern from chambers of commerce; multiple business groups said they had no heads up about significant changes to legislation that Gov. Abbott has given his full-throated support

A last-minute substitute for Senate Bill 15 – a ban on city-mandated paid sick leave for private employers – left stakeholders on Thursday confused and with varying opinions on the bill’s impact.

Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, offered a substitute in committee that clarifies aspects of the bill that concerned cities: The bill only applies to city regulation of private employers. Cities and counties are welcome to set their own policies when it comes to their own employees and contracts. This was a targeted effort to provide consistent and predictive scheduling and benefits, said Creighton.

“Recently, a few local governments have adopted policies that place burdensome, expensive regulations on businesses in their communities,” Creighton said. “These are costly, prohibitive and intrusive, and at odds with the Texas constitution.”

Testimony on SB 15 took a couple of hours in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

By Kimberly Reeves

Copyright February 28, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved