Latest news with #Gallick
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Missouri bill to overturn voter-approved paid sick leave clears Senate committee
State Rep. Sherri Gallick, a Republican from Belton, speaks in March during Missouri House debate. (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications) A Republican-led push to overturn the paid sick leave law adopted by Missouri voters last year was debated and approved Wednesday by a state Senate committee. The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Sherri Gallick of Belton, was passed by the House earlier this month and would gut Proposition A, a voter-approved law requiring most employers starting May 1 to provide paid sick time off for hundreds of thousands of qualifying workers. Gallick called the law, which also increased the state's minimum wage, a 'one-two punch for Missouri businesses' that will increase the cost of goods and services and have an adverse impact on small businesses in rural parts of the state. She has said workers will 'abuse' the leave. Gallick's bill would also modify the minimum wage law by removing the requirement that it be indexed to inflation. The bill was passed out of committee Wednesday on a 5 to 2 vote party-line immediately following a contentious public hearing, with Democrats opposing. The committee chair, state Sen. Curtis Trent of Springfield, said that although usually there is at least one week between the public hearing and committee vote, it's 'extremely clear…there is not really an opportunity for further deliberation by the committee' and that pushing the bill forward immediately would allow 'robust debate and consideration' by the full Senate. If approved by the Senate without changes, the bill would go to Gov. Mike Kehoe, who has voiced support for the proposal. There is no emergency clause, so it wouldn't go into effect until Aug. 28 — months after the sick leave law goes into effect. Richard Von Glahn, policy director for Missouri Jobs with Justice, the organization that helped lead the campaign for Proposition A, said it was modeled on paid sick leave policies in 18 other states. The initiative petition passed in rural, suburban and urban counties across the state and received 58% of the vote statewide. 'Opponents made their argument, we made our argument and the voters spoke,' Von Glahn said. Gallick's bill is 'refutation of the public will,' he added. 'It will make Missouri workers more likely to have to go to work while sick, jeopardizing their own health, the health of their coworkers and of Missouri workplaces.' Many of the same industry groups who are challenging Proposition A in the state Supreme Court testified in support of the bill Wednesday. Kara Corches, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called the law, especially paid sick leave, a 'job killer.' 'We believe that this one size fits all approach to paid sick leave is unworkable,' Corches said. Buddy Lahl, from the Missouri Restaurant Association, called the requirements on businesses 'extremely cumbersome' and said the law is a 'slippery slope' for what businesses will be required to provide. 'Fixing Proposition A is not even an option, fixing the sick pay. It just needs to be eliminated. It's just too erroneous. And I only listed some of the bigger issues. Every line in there is a problem for a small business,' Lahl said. When Lahl said the only fix is to eliminate the law, state Sen. Stephen Webber, a Columbia Democrat, responded: 'That's not happening, The only path you have is to maybe make some small changes.' State Sen. Tracy McCreery, an Olivette Democrat, said restaurant workers without sick time who go to work because they need a paycheck for public health. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Proposition A passed with the support of numerous unions, workers' advocacy groups, social justice and civil rights organizations, as well as over 500 business owners. It guarantees sick leave for hundreds of thousands of workers and gradually hikes the minimum wage to $15. The measure won by a margin of over 400,000 votes. Under the law, beginning May 1, the law requires employers with business receipts greater than $500,000 a year to provide at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. Employers with fewer than 15 workers must allow workers to earn at least 40 hours per year, with larger employers mandated to allow at least 56 hours. The law also gradually increases the minimum wage. Under Gallick's bill, the minimum wage would still increase to $15 per hour in 2026, as voters approved, but it would not be adjusted for inflation thereafter — a policy that has been in place since 2007. The sick leave provisions would be repealed entirely. Because the measure changed state law and not the constitution, the legislature can modify or overturn it without returning for a new vote of the people. The bill passed out of the House on a vote of 96 to 51 earlier this month.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New paid sick leave requirement targeted by Missouri Republicans
State Rep. Sherri Gallick, a Republican from Belton, speaks in April during Missouri House debate. (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications) Worries that 'slackers' may take advantage of Missouri's new law requiring most employers to give workers paid sick leave isn't a good enough reason to repeal it, a Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday. In November, voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative petition called Proposition A that requires employers with business receipts greater than $500,000 a year to provide at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. Employers with fewer than 15 workers must allow workers to use at least 40 hours per year, with larger employers mandated to allow at least 56 hours. During a House committee hearing Wednesday, Democratic state Rep. Steve Butz of St. Louis challenged Republican state Rep. Sherri Gallick to back up her argument that employees can't be trusted to use paid sick leave only for the reasons allowed by the law. 'Under the mandated sick leave, potential abuse is nearly impossible to address,' Gallick, a Republican from Belton, told the House Commerce Committee. 'Employers cannot ask an employee why they were absent, leaving them vulnerable to lawsuits for merely inquiring.' Only workers employed under a fixed-term contract are exempt from Missouri's at-will employment rules. While the mandate created in Proposition A prohibits employers from firing workers who use the leave, Missouri law doesn't require employers to give any reason for discharging a worker. 'My hunch is, if you're a slacker, you've been calling in sick already, and this is an at-will state, and I've already fired you,' said Butz, who owns an insurance agency. Proposition A also increased the state minimum wage. It was set at $13.75 on Jan. 1 and will increase to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2026. After that, it will be adjusted for inflation, as it has been since 2007. Gallick is sponsoring a bill to repeal the paid leave law, delay the $15 minimum wage to 2028 and repeal the provision indexing it to inflation. Gallick's bill, as proposed, would have delayed implementation of the paid leave provisions from May 1 to Jan. 1. During the hearing, she presented a substitute with all the provisions she wants to enact. That change brought some questioning from fellow Republicans who wanted to know why she didn't include all the things she wanted in the bill when it was filed. 'Was this House committee substitute your original intent?' asked Rep. Don Mayhew, a Republican from Crocker. 'Yes,' Gallick replied. 'Then why didn't you just do that bill instead of this bill that changes a few dates?' Mayhew asked. Gallick said she filed it to get it in line for a hearing, then listened to businesses in her district to determine what was most important to them. 'That is why I kind of had a kind of a vague bill in the beginning,' Gallick said. Mayhew said he doesn't oppose some of the changes but wasn't pleased with the way it was delivered. 'I've never seen one to be this big of a difference between the filed bill and the House committee substitute,' Mayhew said. Gallick's bill is one of several being considered in the commerce committee that would alter the terms of Proposition A. There are bills to exempt employers with 50 or fewer workers from the new minimum wage, to limit application of the new minimum wage to workers 21 and older and to repeal the inflation adjustment. The campaign to pass Proposition A drew no large-scale opposition prior to the vote. But a court challenge filed in early December by major business advocacy groups asks the Missouri Supreme Court to invalidate the vote. The court has set the case for arguments on March 12. Many of the same groups involved with the lawsuit — Associated Industries of Missouri, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Missouri Grocers Association and others — are backing the bills to change Proposition A. Ron Berry, a lobbyist for Jobs with Justice, said the challenges should have come earlier. 'When the petition is first certified for circulation, there's an opportunity to challenge that ballot summary. That didn't happen,' Berry said Wednesday. 'When the petition signatures are turned in and the initiative is certified for the ballot, there's an opportunity to challenge the signatures. That didn't happen. None of these challenges started coming until after the voters approved this by 57%.' Kara Corches, executive director of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said businesses are worried about language barring employers from attempting 'to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right' to paid leave. The language creates a potential liability that has employers worried about 'trial attorneys getting rich off of their backs.' The paid leave mandate opens the door for other requirements, she said. 'This is a very slippery slope,' Corches said. 'Once we start on this, it's minimum wages, it's paid sick leave, what's next? Is it the dress code in your workplace? Is it the days that you're allowed to be closed?' Committee Chairman David Casteel, a Republican from High Ridge, said he intends to work through the week to develop a bill that both businesses and advocates defending Proposition A can accept. 'It has never been my intent to overturn the will of the people,' Casteel said. 'I just want to create a product that will be agreeable and compromised by both the employee and the employer.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
