Nutter to create paid sick leave task force

More than a year after Mayor Nutter vetoed a bill that would require businesses to pay workers when they are sick, he is creating a task force to reexamine the issue.

Nutter will be announcing the task force and its members at a news conference this afternoon.

Co-chairs of the task force, Natalie Levkovich, executive director of the Health Federation of Philadelphia, and Lisa Crutchfield, Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce vice president, said they were recently asked by the mayor to lead the team.

“I come at this in support of a policy that would be fair to workers,” Levkovich said Thursday. Her organization did not take a stance during the debate of the bill last year.

The bill, which was sponsored by City Councilman William K. Greenlee, initially passed 11-6 in April 2013. Once Nutter vetoed it, Greenlee did not have the 12 votes to override the mayor’s decision.

Nutter vetoed a similar bill in 2011, saying he did not believe Philadelphia should pass a paid-sick-leave law when other municipalities in the region do not have one.

“Part of the value of having this task force is we come to it with different points of view but also an open,” Lekovich said.

Source: Philly.com