With less than an hour to spare, Michigan lawmakers amended certain provisions of the Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA), agreeing to a bipartisan compromise late Thursday night.
Passing the Senate by a margin 26-10, and the House 81-29, House Bill 4002 prevents certain aspects of a series of scheduled sick time changes that were set to take effect on Feb. 25.
Among the key amendments included in the final bill:
- New employees can be required to wait 120 days before utilizing earned sick time.
- Employers have the option to front-load 72 hours sick time rather than implement a tracking system based on hours worked.
- If a worker separates from employment and is rehired by the same employer after 2 months, their sick time accrual would reset.
- Small businesses with 10 or fewer employees have until October 1 to comply.
- Small businesses must provide 40 hours of paid sick time — rather than 40 hours paid and 32 hours of unpaid sick time.
Michigan Farm Bureau and other key groups representing employers in the state spent months pressing lawmakers to act after a Michigan Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the implementation of the original ballot language, which would have greatly reduced employers’ options for offering paid leave to employees, effectively creating a “one size fits all” approach.
Nearly 1,220 Michigan Farm Bureau members and supporters sent 2,395 messages to state lawmakers communicating the unique needs of Michigan’s agriculture employers.
Due to the makeup of the state legislature, it was clear throughout the negotiating process that compromises would have to be made by everyone involved, in order to achieve any amount of progress, noted Michigan Farm Bureau Manager of Government Relations Rob Anderson.
“Doing nothing was not an option, so the fact that the legislature was able to act was helpful,” Anderson said.
Part time workers were not exempted in the final bill but would instead have their sick time front loaded based on an estimate of the hours they will work and adjusted if they work beyond the original estimate.
The bill also removed an employee’s ability to skip filing a complaint if they believe the employer violated the law, and instead go directly to court.
Challenges remain
While MFB backed the version of the bill that passed the House in January which included exemptions for seasonal workers, the Senate was ultimately unable to come to an agreement on that provision.
“While we can’t yet know the full impact for agriculture and for our seasonal employers — who, by nature have a lot of people coming and going — it’s clear this will be challenging,” Anderson said.
In an advisory sent Friday, Varnum Law said its attorneys are reviewing the changes included in the bill and would be releasing a comprehensive update based on analysis of the changes.
“In the meantime, employers who planned to roll out ESTA policies and programs today should pause their efforts in light of this development,” Varnum wrote. “The ESTA amendments may impact many employer policies and approaches to ESTA compliance.”