Sick Leave Bill Fails in Legislature

Category: Legal Article
Created: Mar 28 2010 - 21:00
Updated: Apr 6 2010 - 10:32


Employers are due for some good news. This morning, the Maine Legislature killed LD 1665, the sick leave bill, for this session. You may recall that this bill, which was titled "An Act To Prevent the Spread of H1N1," originally would have mandated the provision of paid sick leave by all Maine employers. When that idea ran into strong opposition from the employer community, the bill morphed into a prohibition against terminating anyone who takes up to five days of sick leave a year. But this approach also ran into a firestorm from employers, and the votes simply did not materialize.

From the information available, the bill died "under the hammer" which means that there was no recorded vote in either the House or the Senate. So there will be no way to tell who supported the bill, and who did not. There are often political reasons why both proponents and opponents do not want such a record, usually for fear of displeasing a particular interest group.

In this case, maybe "good" news really means "not bad" news. The demise of LD 1665 does not improve anything; employers are left with the status quo, for now. Depending on the state of the economy and the outcome of the fall election, this bill could well be back.

In the meantime, however, what matters most is that employers were heard, loud and clear. Keep it up!