Final June, almost two-thirds of San Francisco voters authorised Prop. G, which mandated that metropolis employers with 100 or extra staff present emergency sick depart throughout a public well being emergency.
With such a requirement in place, a San Francisco employee can keep at residence and get well from covid — or look after a member of the family — with out burning all of his or her sick days.
The ordinance is aimed primarily at non-public employers, but in addition mandates the town of San Francisco to supply emergency depart for its tens of hundreds of staff. However a whole lot of metropolis workers — and hundreds of academics at Metropolis School, San Francisco State and the San Francisco Unified Faculty District — have been flabbergasted to be taught that this safety doesn’t apply to them. Within the occasion of a covid emergency, they could be pressured to burn by their sick days — the very situation this ordinance sought to stop.
At problem are two particular carve-outs within the regulation. One notes that the time period employer “shall embody the Metropolis, however shall not embody any authorities entity aside from the town.” That excludes public college staff and federal and state workers — together with the tens of hundreds of staff at UCSF.
The opposite specification requires workers to work “inside the geographic boundaries of the town.” This excludes a whole lot of San Francisco workers similar to Sheriff’s Division jail guards in San Bruno, San Francisco law enforcement officials on the Airport Bureau, airport firefighters, and Public Utilities Fee workers engaged on Hetch Hetchy and all through Northern California.
Whereas these carve-outs weren’t unintentional — this was not a drafting error — affected workers are solely now studying that they may not obtain covid emergency depart.
“We’re writing to tell you that California’s COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Depart coverage expired on Dec. 31, 2022. SFUSD is honoring a grace interval to make sure that workers can entry claims to their COVID Sick Depart. Workers have till Feb. 15 to assert COVID Sick Depart,” reads a letter despatched to each San Francisco public college educator on Feb. 6.
“As of Feb. 16, workers will not have the ability to use COVID Sick Depart and may use common Sick Depart as a substitute. Please observe that there isn’t a pay-out possibility for COVID Sick Depart.”
Police Officers Affiliation president Tracy McCray and Deputy Sheriffs Affiliation president Ken Lomba have been publicly sparring over whose division ought to cowl SFO. Each union presidents have been in lockstep, nevertheless, in saying that the town gave their staff a uncooked deal right here.
“Whether or not you’re a police officer or firefighter maintaining our airport secure, or a custodian maintaining it clear, all of those workers are serving San Francisco’s residents, companies, and guests and may have entry to the identical advantages to look after themselves and their households,” wrote McCray. “It’s unlucky that so many public servants, who’re Metropolis workers, have been neglected by this ordinance.”
Provides Lomba, “That is unfair and doesn’t align with metropolis values. This was to assist staff out. And look what occurred? They remoted some.”
Proposition G was positioned onto the poll by former Supervisor Gordon Mar. When requested if these carve-outs have been intentional, he mentioned they have been.
“This was drafted by the Metropolis Legal professional’s workplace,” he famous. Each the geographic points and the dearth of protection of different governmental workers are as a result of limitations of what San Francisco can impose, Mar mentioned.
“The ordinance is an train of the Metropolis’s police powers, which is why it applies to workers inside the geographical bounds of San Francisco,” defined Metropolis Legal professional spokeswoman Jen Kwart.
“With regard to authorities workers not employed by the Metropolis, we’re usually pre-empted from making use of most of these legal guidelines to state and federal authorities workers.”
Patrick Mulligan, the director of the town’s Workplace of Labor Requirements and Enforcement, mentioned he sympathized with confused metropolis workers. However the metropolis is unable to impose sure circumstances on public-sector staff working out-of-town simply as it’s unable to impose sure circumstances out-of-town non-public sector staff (non-public staff at SFO are additionally not touched by the ordinance, as are private-sector staff on the Presidio or Fort Mason).
“Any of our legal guidelines that additionally apply to non-public employers — minimal wage, healthcare safety — solely apply inside the jurisdiction of the boundaries of the Metropolis and County of San Francisco,” explains Mulligan. “We don’t have authorized standing … that we will implement our labor legal guidelines exterior the town and county.”
The Division of Human Assets buttressed Mulligan’s rationalization: “The ordinance written and handed by the Board of Supervisors in 2022 solely applies to workers domiciled inside the geographic boundaries of San Francisco. The Board has no regulatory authority exterior this boundary.”
Whatever the nuance and the nitty-gritty, affected metropolis staff are dissatisfied and annoyed.
“If staff catch one thing contagious, they need to have the power to look after themselves or their households,” mentioned Lomba. “San Francisco is offering this for staff within the metropolis, however not for staff on metropolis property exterior of San Francisco. And there doesn’t appear to be any urgency to repair this.”
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