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MARCH 10, 2017
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Sick leave bill would hit OC hard New legislation offers little relief for summer business with temporary employees
By Greg Ellison Staff Writer (March 10, 2017) Legislation that would require employers to provide sick leave to their workers received a favorable report from the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, following its passage in the House of Delegates last Friday. Under current law, Maryland does not require businesses to provide employees with sick leave of any kind. Delegate Mary Beth Carozza voted against the bill last Friday because of her concerns about the impact on seasonal employers. As proposed, the bill would require employers with more than 14 employees to provide paid sick and safe leave, which would be earned at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked. Employers with 14 or fewer workers would be required to provide unpaid sick leave, which would be calculated at the same rate. Also the bill would not require an employer to allow its staff to carry over more than 56 hours of earned sick leave in a year, use more than 80 hours of earned leave yearly, accrue more than 80 hours of sick leave at any given time or used earned leave during either the first 90 calendar days of first 480 hours worked, whichever is shorter. Several amendments proposed by Carozza were rejected by a 53-84 vote in the house last Wednesday. She sought unsuccessfully to exempt seasonal employees who work 120 days or less in a 12-month period, as well as increasing the number of employees required for paid sick leave from 15 to 50. Additionally, she had pushed for tax credits to assist businesses with fewer than 15 staff members. The original See AMENDMENT Page 3
JOSH DAVIS/OCEAN CITY TODAY
AHEAD OF THE CURVE Construction crews work to install a new sidewalk on the shoulder of Coastal Highway near the off-ramp from Route 90 and the Ocean City Tennis Center on 61st Street, Tuesday morning. Similar work is going on throughout the resort, with midtown efforts likely completed before the St. Patrick’s Day parade on Saturday.
Firefighters turn in petition Union says it has what it needs to put arbitration requirement on next ballot
By Katie Tabeling Staff Writer (March 10, 2017) Although Ocean City government has reached a labor agreement with Chapter 4269 of the International Association of Fire Fighters through collective bargaining, union members will still try to gain the right to binding arbitration via a public referendum. The IAFF last Thursday submitted a petition to bring binding interest arbitration to referendum to City Clerk Diana Chavis, whose office will coordinate with the city’s Board
of Elections to verify the names on the signed sheets. “At this point it looks as though the last week of March or early April suits their [the Board of Election supervisors] schedules best,” she said. According to state law on altering town charters, the petition must bear the signatures of 20 percent of a municipality’s registered voters to be valid. Ocean City had 5,766 registered voters in the 2016 election, which means the petition needs signatures from 1,153 of those to have the matter placed on the next election ballot. Although the city clerk’s office has yet to count the signatures, See IAFF Page 3
Ryan Whittington explains the union’s petition during last July’s push for signatures.