By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton Council will not require businesses to provide paid sick time to their employees, in a defeat for Mayor Liz Lempert and a political advocacy group that had pushed for the mandate that is in place in 12 other New Jersey towns.
A three-member council committee had spent roughly the past four months examining the issue but failed to reach a “consensus” on making a recommendation to the full governing body for a sick pay ordinance, said Councilwoman and committee member Heather H. Howard at Monday’s council meeting.
She said the committee felt it needed more information “about the nature of our local workforce” in hearing different stories about how many part-time workers in town lack paid sick time and would benefit from it. Also, she said the group wanted to see the impacts of New Brunswick’s sick pay ordinance — which denies the benefit to part-timer employees who work less than 20 hours per week — since it only took effect this year.
Ms. Howard left the door open for the committee to make a recommendation in the future to the governing body. But she gave no timeline for doing that.
The group met 14 times, exploring what other towns in New Jersey have done and seeking to hear a broad range of perspectives. It analyzed two different models of sick pay ordinances in effect in Jersey City and New Brunswick, with Princeton officials discussing with their counterparts in those cities.
“But then the bulk of our work really has been meeting with residents and business owners in town to hear their views on the need for a benefit, what the impact would be of adopting an ordinance,” she said of a committee that included herself and Councilmen Lance Liverman and Patrick Simon.
“All the stakeholders that we spoke to — these were merchants and advocates — don’t think not one said that they were against earned sick leave for any employee,” Mr. Liverman said.
Ms. Howard said the Princeton Merchants Association surveyed local businesses and found that “most” full-time employees in town have paid sick pay, while most part timers do not. The New Brunswick ordinance was held up by the PMA as a model ordinance.
“And the feeling from these businesses was that they employ many part-time workers who are teenagers or young people who don’t have the same need for a benefit,” she said.
“We thank council for taking a thorough look and listening to stakeholders in the community,” said restaurateur and PMA board member Jack Morrison outside the meeting room.
Businesses were concerned about the council acting “locally” in a way that might hurt “their competitive advantage regionally,” Ms. Howard said. Yet on the other hand, advocates for the measure said that absent legislation by state government, the town should do what it could to protect workers, Ms. Howard said.
“So we heard strongly from both sides on that issue,” she said.
The committee met with representatives of the largest employer in town, Princeton University. Mr. Liverman and Mr. Simon discussed the issue with vice president and secretary Robert K. Durkee and director of community and regional affairs Kristin S. Appelget.
“And we were pleased, for the most part, that they were in favor of the concept,” Mr. Liverman said.
Mr. Simon said Nassau Hall had asked that work-study students and teaching assistants be exempted from the ordinance.
The decision not to move forward comes as Mayor Lempert had publicly endorsed a sick pay ordinance and sought to make the case for one when she spoke two weeks ago to the MidJersey Chamber of Commerce. At the time, she declared it important to “treat everybody who works in town fairly.”
She has stated her support for such a requirement, one that the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, a Democratic aligned political organization, had lobbied council to adopt.
Working Families political director Craig Garcia, also on the board of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, said outside the meeting room that his group believes all workers deserve paid sick days, including part-timers.
The town itself provides sick pay to its employees, although they have to wait 120 days before becoming eligible. Some seasonal workers would not then qualify.
