Enchantment State News

Albuquerque City Council members who wanted to mandate paid sick leave for businesses in the city withdrew their proposal, but plan to renew it in August by splitting its pandemic-related requirements from long-term mandates that would start on Jan. 1.

“Under the guise of responding to the current public health emergency, city councilors are proposing a new city-wide bill that will mandate multiple new mandates on businesses in Albuquerque,” the New Mexico Business Coalition said.

The nature of virtual meetings because of the COVID-19 pandemic makes public comment difficult, the coalition said.

The sponsors of the bill, council members Isaac Benton and Lan Sena had to withdraw the bill because it was introduced in an emergency session of city council, but the bill also included provisions that would extend past the end of the current pandemic emergency, according to the city’s recording of the meeting livestream.

The proposal would mandate that full-time employees immediately get 80 hours of paid public emergency sick leave. The paid sick leave available for part-time workers would match the number of hours for that worker on a two-week average.

Once the emergency ended, given as Jan. 1 in the proposal, all employers that are required to get business licenses with the city would be under a mandate to give each employee one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work in a year, up to 56 hours. Voters rejected a sick leave bill on this mandate in October 2017, Ballotpedia reported.

Benton plans to reintroduce the emergency pandemic provisions of the paid sick leave proposal in August, he told his fellow council members, according to the meeting video.