Ohio Governor Opposes Paid Sick Leave Initiative

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said Thursday, August 21, that he would oppose a controversial state ballot initiative that would require businesses to give employees paid sick time off.

The governor made the announcement in a statement e-mailed to news media.

“While we would hope that all Ohio businesses would make paid sick days available to their employees whenever possible, we believe that this initiative is unworkable, unwieldy and would be detrimental to Ohio’s economy, and we will be opposing it and asking Ohioans to oppose it as a result,” read the statement, issued in the name of the governor and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher.

To avoid a law created by voter initiative, Strickland had hoped to reach a compromise between those who put the issue on the ballot—in particular, the Service Employees International Union—and the business groups that oppose it.

“This reality means that there will be a hard-fought campaign centering on this initiative in the coming months,” the governor said in the statement. “During that campaign, we call upon both sides to avoid portraying Ohio as unfriendly to business and economic development.”

The proposed new law would require employers of 25 people or more to grant seven paid sick days per year to all full-time employees and to provide paid sick days on a prorated basis to part-time workers.

Filed by Jay Miller of Crain’s Cleveland Business, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

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