City Council to weigh paid coronavirus sick days next week

Pittsburgh City Council members will question the Peduto administration Monday evening about proposed COVID-19 paid sick leave for all workers in city limits.

On the agenda so far for the 6 p.m. special fact-finding meeting is Dan Gilman, the mayor’s chief of staff.

No public comment will be taken.

The city won its fight for paid sick leave in July 2019 when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the local ordinance following four years of litigation brought on by challenges from private employers. Any worker employed within municipal boundaries is now entitled to up to 40 hours of paid sick time, depending on the size of the employer.

The Peduto administration wants to expand those rights to include additional time off for workers who test positive for the coronavirus or those who need to isolate after exposure.

“The prime example I’ve given is somebody who works in an environment [where] another colleague has tested positive, and the Health Department or their employer has said, ‘Jane or John Doe, you can’t work for the next 10 days.

You have to go home and quarantine, and you won’t be paid because you’re not working.’ For those people, that is their lifeline for food on the table,” Mr. Gilman said Wednesday to council’s standing committee.

The committee gave an affirmative recommendation to the legislation, with Council President Theresa Kail-Smith and Councilman Anthony Coghill abstaining.

Councilman Corey O’Connor, sponsor of the 2015 Paid Sick Days Act, said he wanted assurance from the administration’s Law Department that amending the ordinance would not open the city for further legal challenges. He estimates the local law protects 40,000 workers.

As of Friday morning, the meeting with the city’s legal team had yet not happened, Mr. O’Connor said.

“Obviously, I support it. ... I just want to make sure this in no way jeopardizes the original bill,” he said Friday.

The meeting will be livestreamed on the city’s YouTube channel.