Paid sick leave goes into effect for city employees

Today would have been the day Austin’s hotly debated sick leave policy for local businesses would have gone into effect, but the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals placed a temporary injunction on the ordinance to determine its legality before businesses have to begin operating under its rules. There’s no known timeline for when that decision will be made, but a Sept. 11 city memo stated the city will move forward with providing sick time to all full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees. The Austin Business Journal noted that the final rules of the ordinance are notably harsher for businesses, with larger fines, shorter time periods for recommendations and case closure, and no appeal process, the inclusion of which had been supported by those on both sides of the issue.