After failing in 2016, labor unions and anti-business progressive
front groups are renewing their push to force Michigan small businesses to provide paid
sick leave to all of their employees and have their sights set on the 2018
ballot to get their measure passed.
According to a recent article
in the Detroit Free Press, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers on has approved proposed ballot
wording submitted by a group calling itself “Raise Michigan” to create the “Earned
Sick Time Act”.
Advocates pushing this proposal are calling it “Earned Sick
Leave” in order to make it sound as though every small business owes this
benefit to their employees whether they can afford it or not, or even if they
already have a sick leave policy in place.
If the big labor unions and community activist groups are
successful in getting this proposal passed on the ballot in the 2018
November elections, Michigan would have one of the most stringent paid sick
leave employer mandates in the country. Any business with 10 or more
employees would be required to provide 1 hour of paid leave for every 30 hours
worked and employees could use up to 72 hours of paid leave every year and they
could do so in 15 minute increments at a time!
The push to mandate paid leave, and other benefits that
small business cannot afford, is taking place at all levels of government
including federal, state and even local efforts. NFIB efforts at the state
level have resulted
in legislation that would prohibit local governments from passing
their own laws requiring a higher minimum wage or paid leave benefit greater
than federal or state law.
NFIB will be working to derail this latest effort, but your
help is needed to defeat this job killing mandate! Do not sign any
petition promising “earned sick leave” benefits for workers.
