Container Top
Search

Events Calendar

EVENT SEARCH:

In This Section


Most Read Stories


Blogs:


First Bell - On Education:
No City of Akron basketball tonight

Pets:
Pet telethon re-airs

The Heldenfiles:
Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30

Akron Zips:
Late surge gives Zips ugly road win

Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner

Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated

Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft

Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9

Cleveland Cavaliers:
NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet

Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day

Varsity Letters:
Garfield at Buchtel basketball

All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention

Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions

Akron Law Café:
Citizens United v. F.E.C. (Part 4): Kennedy's and O'Connor's Basic Approaches to Constitutional Decisionmaking – Top Down and Bottom Up

Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll

Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?

Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.

Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend

HRLite House:
Track HR Research

Akron Gamer:
'Tecmo Bowl' recreation of Super Bowl XLIV

See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering

Feeling better

Ohioans for Healthy Families avoids a headache for Ohio

Ohioans for Healthy Families made a well-advised move on Thursday taking its misguided and contentious paid sick-leave issue off the November ballot. The decision to withdraw Issue 4 wisely has spared Ohio a vicious campaign that was likely to damage efforts to raise the state's business profile, regardless which side prevailed.

The coalition, led by the Service Employees International Union, pushed for more than a year a proposal that would guarantee seven paid sick days annually to workers in companies with 25 or more employees. Proponents argued that workers shouldn't lose pay when they have to take time off to care for themselves or an ailing family member.

The impulse was right to seek reasonable protections for the income of workers, particularly employees of small businesses, faced with illness. Unfortunately, the proposed legislation was so poorly formulated it strayed well beyond the reasonable. For instance, under the proposal, workers could take sick leave in hourly increments and for up to three days without obtaining medical certification.

The proposal lacked clarity on other provisions, including whether workers could carry over unused sick days to the next year or be compensated for those days when they left an employer.

Proponents could contend that for an Ohio trying to attract and retain workers, a worker-friendly mandate such as Issue 4 has its appeal. True, but the far more compelling argument was on the opponents' side. For both small and large employers, the benefit promised increased costs, scheduling disruptions, loss of flexibility in negotiating sick leave and the hassle of tracking employee sick leave by the hour.

Not surprisingly, the proposal drew broad, bipartisan and uniform opposition, putting business groups, legislative leaders and Gov. Ted Strickland's administration on the same page. Strickland tried and failed last month to negotiate a compromise proposal with the coalition. It is a credit to him and leaders of the coalition that they continued the discussion, and arrived at the necessary conclusion. Ohio hardly needed an expensive and bitter campaign over an issue harmful to the retooling of its economy.

Ohioans for Healthy Families made a well-advised move on Thursday taking its misguided and contentious paid sick-leave issue off the November ballot. The decision to withdraw Issue 4 wisely has spared Ohio a vicious campaign that was likely to damage efforts to raise the state's business profile, regardless which side prevailed.

Get the full article here.


Story tools

Email  Email   Print  Print   Save  Save   Reprint  Reprint   Popular  Most Popular   Reprint  Subscribe

Share this story

AddThis Social Bookmark Button














Most Commented Stories