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PA Supreme Court: Pittsburgh’s Paid Sick Day Law Can Stand

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Pittsburgh can require private employers to provide paid sick leave, upholding a 2015 piece of legislation passed in Pittsburgh City Council in 2015. 

The ruling is being celebrated by Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and Councilors that supported this legislation, along with the union members that represent the service employees. 

“Guaranteeing paid sick leave is a huge win for those who live and work in Pittsburgh,” Peduto said in a statement. “As I’ve long said, people should not be forced into making the tough decision between staying home sick and missing a day’s pay or coming in to work and spreading infection.”

The Pittsburgh ordinance was being opposed in the courts by business organizations. The AP reports that the businesses that opposed the ordinance were successful in lower courts twice prior to today’s ruling. 

Today’s ruling in the Supreme Court upheld the Pittsburgh law by a 4-3 vote according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star

The four justices that sided with the Pittsburgh law say that the city can “express statutory authority to legislate in furtherance of disease control and prevention,” the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports. 

Some Democratic members of the state legislature chimed in showing support for the ruling, including the Pennsylvania Democratic Party sharing the news on Twitter pointing to the 2015 Supreme Court elections that provided them the majority. 

GOP lawmakers in Harrisburg have previously tried to pass legislation to prevent cities to enforce laws like paid sick leave and could do so again in the wake of this recent ruling. 

The Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports that Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), has introduced legislation that prevents a municipality to require paid sick leave and offered his thoughts to the ruling today. 

“If Pittsburgh and Philly want to be San Francisco, they can just go to San Francisco,” Grove said to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

The Pittsburgh law requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year, while employers with fewer than 15 employers must provide up to 24 hours of paid sick leave per year, the AP reports. 

The full ruling can be read here.

4 Responses

  1. Now that the supreme Court has been cleaned of the Godfather and his mafia influence, the people finally get their voices back…until the next election when the summanabitch dumb bastards vote the next generation of mob crooks onto the bench.

  2. Sick people should just go back to where they came from.

    Send them back!

  3. Liberals are now doing to Pittsburgh what they’ve done to so many other American cities. Pile on unsustainable laws, requirements, limits etc and then sit there slack jawed in amazement while private enterprise and taxpayers flee. A real shame, because PGH has made a great comeback.

    1. God forbid people are treated as humans and not machines. Good lord conservatives literally are unable to think about the well being of anyone but themselves

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