City of Tacoma Offers Employers Information Sessions on Paid Leave

Tacoma's paid leave ordinance takes effect on Feb. 1, 2016. Employers who want to learn more about this ordinance, and the tools available to them as they work to incorporate paid leave into their respective workplaces, are encouraged to attend one of two employer information sessions in October:

Thursday, Oct. 15, 4 - 5:30 p.m.
Tacoma Public Library Main Branch (Olympic Room)
1102 Tacoma Ave. S.

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 10 - 11:30 a.m.
STAR Center (Discover Room)
3873 S. 66th Street

These information sessions will be followed by a question and answer session if time permits.

In addition to these information sessions, nearly a dozen business organizations and community groups have arranged to receive special presentations from City staff. Organizations or community groups wishing to schedule a special presentation can email paidleave@cityoftacoma.org or call (253) 591-5306.

More information for employers and workers is available at cityoftacoma.org/paidleave, by emailing paidleave@cityoftacoma.org or calling (253) 591-5306.

Tacoma Council Adopts Mandatory Paid Leave

On Tuesday, January 27th, after a marathon council meeting lasting nearly six hours and including 35 pages of amendments, Tacoma’s City Council passed (8-1) an ordinance requiring all businesses operating within the City to provide a minimum of 3 days of paid time off to employees beginning February 1^st, 2016.  

Early versions of an ordinance brought forward by paid leave proponents suggested businesses be responsible for providing employees with up to 14 days of paid time off.  The Chamber made it clear that new mandates will make it harder for businesses to meet their employees’ actual needs rather than those thought up by others.  Furthermore, if the Council is truly focused on employees, it must minimize expensive tracking and regulatory burdens to ensure limited funds are actually spent on providing benefits rather than administration.

Thankfully, enough of the Council heard these concerns to streamline the tracking and incorporate flexibility.  The 3-day ordinance passed by Council also allows for employers and employees with unique needs options like on-call pay programs, shift swapping, minimum hours worked, and front loaded benefits.

While this phase of the paid leave discussion has wrapped up, we are preparing for the next round.  Unusual for Tacoma, the Council has decided to implement a rule making process after passing the Ordinance meaning there are numerous questions about the details.  Once these rules are published, we will be hosting sessions to get businesses up to speed.  At a minimum, all businesses should plan on reviewing their personnel policies and handbooks to ensure they meet the allowable usage requirements in the ordinance.

Previously, the Chamber has shared status updates on this issue.  We will continue to provide updates as we can.

Final Reading on Mandatory Paid Leave

The Chamber has been actively working on the Tacoma City Council's Mandatory Paid Leave Ordinance (link). Now the Council has placed a draft ordinance on their agenda for final reading on Tuesday, January 27th at 5PM. The proposal requires all businesses operating that are located in or doing business in the City of Tacoma to provide 3 days of paid time off to every employee. However with the final reading tomorrow night, they could amend the ordinance in any way. Some Councilmembers are actively working to more than double this requirement to 7 days of paid leave and make it more difficult to track hours and prevent abuse. Join with other business leaders and share with your Councilmembers how this ordinance, and particularly these proposed amendments, will impact your business. Sign up for public comment to express how this will affect you. Click the following link for procedures to speak at the City Council Meeting (link).   The meeting will be held at Tacoma City Council Chambers, 747 Market Street, First Floor, Tacoma, WA 98402 on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 at 5:00 p.m.  If you can't attend, please contact your councilmembers directly. Their emails and phone numbers are at: http://www.cityoftacoma.org/government/city_council

Minimum Required Paid Leave Moves Toward Adoption 1/27 @ 5PM

Before the end of 2014, we highlighted some of the work Tacoma City Council was doing on a paid leave ordinance, including a copy of the ordinance (link).

As it currently stands, the ordinance would require all businesses operating within the City limits to offer 24 hours of paid leave to each employee each year with some rollover.

Some Councilmembers are actively working to more than double this to 56 hours of paid leave as well as making it more difficult to track hours and prevent abuse.

Now is the time to share with your Councilmembers how this ordinance, and particularly these proposed amendments, will impact your business.

Please join us on Tuesday, January 27th @ 5PM at the Tacoma City Council meeting for public comment on this ordinance.

If you'd like more information on how to participate in the meeting or provide comments, please contact David Schroedel, the Chamber's Metropolitan Development Director, at 253.682.1723 or davids@tacomachamber.org

Updated Tacoma Required Minimum Paid Leave Ordinance Available

Last week we posted a reminder that the Tacoma City Council would be considering whether or not to require businesses operating within city limits to provide a minimum amount of paid leave to all employees.  Well, it took a marathon Tacoma City Council Meeting (3 hours & 59 minutes exactly), where the Council heard from about 40 members of the public on the issue of paid leave.  The vast majority of the speakers supported Mayor Strickland's move forward on this ordinance, but nearly everyone was interested in some modification of the proposal.  Suggestions ranged from making the program voluntary to increasing the mandate to more than 2 weeks of paid time off.

When it came time for councilmembers to share their thoughts, they too had widely differing opinions on the issue.  In the end, there seemed to be consensus among councilmembers that a required paid leave policy for businesses is better suited to state or federal government implementation, thus minimizing issues of borders, competitive disadvantages between cities, and vastly differing rules within a region.

Both Mayor Strickland and Councilmember Mello had proposed amendments to the ordinance.  The amendments and votes were as follows [Councilmember Boe had to leave before the amendments could be voted on]:

1. Councilmember Mello: Requiring public hearing on rules proposed to implement ordinance [passed 8-0]
2. Councilmember Mello: Requiring businesses to rollover up to 56 hours of leave from year to year [failed 3-5; Ayes: Ibsen, Mello, Woodards]
3. Mayor Strickland: Giving businesses the option to front load hours rather than accruing based on hours worked [passed 8-0]
4. Mayor Strickland: Requiring businesses to rollover up to 24 hours of leave from year to year [passed 6-0; Ayes: Strickland, Campbell, Lonergan, Thoms, Walker, Woodards]
5. Mayor Strickland: Adding clarifying language that businesses have the option to provide more leave at their discretion [passed 8-0]
6. Mayor Strickland proposed an amendment for a premium pay option, but this was tabled since a hard copy of the amendment was not available.  It will likely return at final reading.

As we look at where this leaves the ordinance, they added flexibility for businesses to provide employees a lump sum of paid leave [good] but now require businesses to rollover hours, complicating the tracking [bad].  There are some other minor changes along the way, but the final reading will likely shake things up some more.  Final reading of the ordinance will be on January 27th at 5PM.  If you can't attend, we encourage you to share your thoughts with us and your councilmembers directly.  Councilmembers' emails and phone numbers can be found at: http://www.cityoftacoma.org/government/city_council

If you are interested in learning more about this ordinance, please contact our office at 253.627.2175.  The full text of the amended ordinance can be downloaded here.  

Tacoma Council Officially Considers Minimum Required Paid Leave

Last week we shared that the City of Tacoma would consider requiring all businesses to provide paid time off for employees (link).

Now the Council has placed a draft ordinance on their agenda for first reading tomorrow night.  This means any time after tomorrow they could adopt or amend it.  Tomorrow we hope to hear about any proposed changes, good or bad, and what councilmembers think of them.

The Chamber is sharing its concerns over tracking, employer protections, and one size fits all employees/employers solutions, but the council needs to hear from you & how this would impact your business.  Business leaders can sign up for public comment and express how this ordinance will affect you or simply join us in showing support of the business community. 

The meeting will be held in Tacoma City Council Chambers, 747 Market Street, First Floor, Tacoma, WA 98402 at 5:00 p.m.  If you can't attend, please contact your councilmembers directly.  Their emails and phone numbers are at: http://www.cityoftacoma.org/government/city_council

Tacoma Mandatory Paid Time Off

Last week, the Tacoma City Council announced it would take up the issue of requiring businesses to provide paid time off for all employees.  As reported by the The News Tribune, this paid time off would be available for employees to use for illness; family illness; public health closures; seeking legal assistance; personal or family domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking issues; or bereavement.

While there are still many questions surrounding how many of the details would work, the draft ordinance requires that all employers (except those with unions who waive the requirement) provide 24 hours a year of leave to employees working 960 hours or more.  This is significant progress from the earlier reports of proposals of up to 14 days per year, though the Chamber continues to have reservations about creating local labor laws on a city-by-city basis and the challenges in tracking between jurisdictions.

(For more on some of the challenges, please see our debate on Northwest Now on KBTC [Chamber President & CEO, Tom Pierson starts at 5:34].)

If you have thoughts on this proposal, please contact your councilmembers.  Their emails and phone numbers are at: http://www.cityoftacoma.org/government/city_council