By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert favors mandatory paid sick leave for private sector employees in town, with the only question being if council acts this year on an ordinance to that effect., A sick pay ordinance is on the to-do list for the governing body for 2017, along with a host of other items that officials will try to get to., She said Wednesday that a three-member council committee is studying the issue, one she called “important” for workers who cannot take paid time off when they are sick. She last year publicly endorsed having a local sick pay ordinance, although council could not agree on one., She said there is a “chance” officials will approve a measure in 2017, but she said “a lot of items” are on the agenda of the governing body., Council President Jenny Crumiller could not be reached for comment., Workers advocates have pushed for paid sick pay, and sought to frame it as a public health issue. But the idea of a mandate coming from the municipal government has rubbed one local business group the wrong way., Peter Crowley, president and CEO of the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Wednesday that his group’s view is that paid sick leave is a “state issue.”, “It should not be a localized decision,” he said., Democrats in the state Legislature favor such a requirement, but New Jersey is still without such a law., Thirteen communities, including Newark, Jersey City and New Brunswick, mandate that businesses provide that benefit to their employees. But New Brunswick’s measure does not go as far as advocates want; the ordinance in that city does not include employees who work less than 20 hours a week. Also, it applies only to employees of businesses located within the city, as opposed to anyone who works in the city, regardless of where the business is located., Last year, Councilwoman Heather H. Howard, who also sits on the sick pay committee, said officials wanted to see what kind of impact New Brunswick’s ordinance has, given that it was only a relatively new law that took effect in January 2016., Mayor Lempert said the council committee is looking at different versions of sick pay ordinances used in the state. There is no return date for when the committee would report back to council, she said., Councilman Lance Liverman, who is on the committee, said Wednesday that the group has not met this year so far., “We’re going to look out for the residents,” he said. “Whatever we do is going to be for the best of the town of Princeton.”
