In a moment of sanity Monday night Albuquerque’s City Council voted down a proposal to offer “hazard pay” to force businesses to pay workers during the pandemic more and a separate plan that would have created a new mandatory sick leave plan was withdrawn.
The sick leave ordinance would have required businesses that are within Albuquerque’s city limits to give full-time employees 80 hours of sick pay until the end of the year and create a new paid sick leave mandate. 80 hours of sick pay would be 2 full weeks during the last 25 or so weeks of the year.
The Council’s reasonableness is welcome, but of course we are not out of the woods yet when it comes to mandatory paid sick leave. Voters have previously rejected such plans and yet Councilors like Ike Benton keep pushing the issue. At least for now businesses that have been hammered by the economic shutdown, destructive riots, the loss of Balloon Fiesta and the State Fair, and many other economic drivers won’t face additional costs…for now.
I emailed all the city councilors informing them that I opposed this legislation.
However, my comment/question is: Why are they even considering these issues. It seems to me that the CITY council’s function is to run and maintain the city and issues DIRECTLY relating to that. Why are they venturing into labor law territory. Who gives them that authority? Does the council not have a specific outline of their duties and functions? Politicians seems to power grab and over-reach their influence. They want to micro-manage.
The nine people on the council cannot possibly represent how
the 500,000+ people of Albuquerque feel about issues that directly affect them. Issues such as these, (IF THEY EVEN ARE A FUNCTION ON CITY COUNCIL) should be put on the ballot for the people to vote on.