Don’t unfairly persecute small biz

An open letter to Mayor de Blasio and members of the City Council: I am a small-business owner with 11 full-time employees. Currently, I offer my employees four sick days a year.

My company would be included under the agreement between Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Mark-Viverito to revise the city’s paid sick leave law.

The measure, enacted last April to cover businesses that employ at least 15 workers, would be amended to require businesses with as few as five workers to provide five annual sick days.

I am not upset about the prospect of being required to give our employees one more sick day per year; I am, however, concerned with the way the city is planning to monitor compliance with the law.

The way the bill is written, the city’s monitoring agency will have the authority to conduct intrusive audits and on-site investigations, and workers will have up to three years to file a complaint after an alleged violation — up from the nine months permitted under the current law.

Small-business owners across the city stand to be squeezed even more than we already are.

The city needs to realize that we employ the majority of its residents; we should be rewarded, rather than being told to pony up more. Instead, we are constantly being targeted as a source of more revenue for city coffers.

Please help keep us alive and in business. Where you may see something that is fair and just for the employees, we feel we are just being put under another microscope.

I know that it is your job to protect the people of this great city we all live in, but I believe that we, as small business owners, also deserve your attention.

The changes, as proposed, would open the door to fraudulent or spiteful claims. In many cases, a small-business owner will have to defend himself or herself against an employee who is upset about a dismissal or some other dispute.

Please remember that you were elected to represent the masses of small business owners as well as their employees. We are also taxpayers and residents of your communities.

Please do not persecute all of the businesses for the few bad apples; please work to reach a happy medium, so that we can be fairly represented in this bill.

In giving workers a more stringent process of airing their complaints, please remember to treat small business owners as innocent until proven guilty — and not the reverse.

I would also like to propose that one small-business owner from each borough be appointed to a panel to oversee the new regulations’ implementation and help consider and craft any future changes. I am sure you can find business owners like myself who would gladly volunteer.

We have many people and families across the city relying on us as their boss. I know that I have 11 employees who rely on me to keep business going strong and paychecks in their hand every week.

Any time at all that I waste on a frivolous case or accusation against me, is money not made to pay a salary. The state’s unemployment rate is too high as it is; help us to keep people employed by supporting our efforts.

Please put yourself into our shoes and consider the benefits we provide to this great city. Small businesses keep the city’s economy moving and employed. We only ask you to represent us as well as the employees. We are your constituents as well.