Showdown on the Way!

The DC Business Community is preparing to head off a bill in the DC Council on Tuesday that would require employers, big and small to provide full and part time workers paid sick leave. The District would become only the second city in the country to take such a step.

I covered the issue on Wednesday and included an interview with Council member Carol Schwartz sponsor of the bill. Schwartz called it a compromise measure that would require businesses with more than 51 workers to pay for 7 days sick leave for full time employees. Small businesses with less than 10 workers would pay for 3 sick days. Part time employees would also earn some paid sick leave.

For my Wednesday story on Nine News Now the DC Chamber of Commerce took a position of the DC Council should further study the impact of the bill before making it law. The Chamber stopped short of opposing the measure.

That was then.

Now, the Chamber of Commerce through an email on Friday says it intends to fight the mandatory paid sick leave move which Schwartz says has majority support among her colleagues.

Here's what the Chamber statement says in part.

"....businesses would be forced to cut back on salary, benefits and even their number of employees. Worst case scenario, existing businesses may choose to relocate to more business-friendly markets like those in Maryland and Virginia, and new businesses may choose not to come at all. Ultimately, this legislation would hurt the very people it's trying to help."Therefore, the DC Chamber is now officially opposed to the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2007, and will seek to have the bill voted down".