Sick-Pay Law Draws No Fines Since It Began

Sixty Complaints by Employees Have Been Resolved, 112 Are Being Investigated

by Michael Howard Saul

Mayor Bill de Blasio ’s administration has received nearly 200 complaints about businesses failing to comply with a sick-pay law that took effect six months ago, but records show the city hasn’t issued a single fine.

Most of the 189 complaints since April 1 came from employees who say their bosses didn’t provide them with a legally required notice outlining their right to paid sick days, according to data provided by New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs, the agency responsible for enforcing the law.

Sixty of the complaints have been successfully resolved through mediation, while 112 are currently in the process of being mediated or being investigated by the city. Only one of the resolved cases resulted in an employee receiving a payment from an employer.

Nearly 10% of the complaints involve allegations of retaliation, including seven cases involving workers who say they were fired, records show. Those retaliation cases have yet to be resolved.

Mr. de Blasio has heralded the sick-pay law—the first bill he signed as mayor—as a cornerstone of his pledge to fight inequality in the city. The law was approved in 2013 over then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg ’s veto, but Mr. de Blasio pushed through the City Council a tougher version in February that expanded the benefit to hundreds of thousands of additional New Yorkers.

Under the law, employers with five or more employees who work more than 80 hours per calendar year must provide paid sick leave. Employees accrue one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 40 hours of leave each year. A six-month grace period for violations for businesses with fewer than 20 employees ended last week

Julie Menin, commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs, said the administration is committed to resolving as many cases as possible through mediation, rather than fining businesses. The city begins mediating complaints immediately after determining an employee with a sick-pay grievance is covered by the law, contacting the employer and providing information on how to resolve the charge.

The absence of fines, Ms. Menin said, shouldn’t be mistaken for a lack of aggressiveness.

“Our first course of action will always be mediation, and we are extremely proud of the fact that we have been able to successfully mediate—or are in the process of mediating—almost all of the complaints,” Ms. Menin said.

Chris Charles, a 40-year-old Brooklyn resident who works as a security guard in Manhattan, is the sole person to receive money after filing a complaint.

Mr. Charles, who earns $8.50 an hour, said his employer, ADM Security, denied him a sick day and then retaliated by changing his schedule to fewer hours. After Mr. Charles’s complaint was mediated by the city, the company agreed to pay him $59.50 in sick-leave pay and $136 in lost wages.

ADM Security officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.

If the city issues a violation, an employer can appear before a judge at an adjudication tribunal. Under the law, a judge has several options—from a $500 fine each time an employee is unlawfully denied sick pay to awarding employees up to three times their lost wages, or $250, whichever is greater.

Nora Nealis, executive director of the National Cleaners Association in Manhattan, who testified against the law, said she is hearing complaints from businesses about the law. While businesses aren’t shutting down specifically because of it, she said, “it becomes a death by 1,000 cuts.”

“They’re crying,” she said. “It hurts.”

Ms. Nealis said she knew of one business that stopped providing employees with paid holidays, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, because the sick-pay law made it too expensive.

City officials said their hope is to educate businesses about the law instead of penalizing them, and is rolling out a $2 million outreach campaign this year.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who led the campaign for paid sick leave when she was a city councilwoman, said that she wasn’t concerned about the lack of fines and that it was vital to focus on informing businesses.

“I really do believe you want education first—how long this education period lasts, you have to see,” Ms. Brewer said. “But if there is a bad actor, then I do hope they get the book shoved at them.”

Robert Bookman, counsel to the New York City Hospitality Alliance, an industry group that has criticized the law, said the city was doing a “great job” educating businesses about the law, saying enforcement wasn’t “gotcha fine oriented.”

“So, we are hopeful,” he said.

Ms. Menin said it is “good that we’re at zero” violations, but “if we find repeat violators, or if we find evidence of retaliation, we obviously are going to step in and assess fines.”

“If we can’t mediate,” she said, “then we will have to go to a violation.”