MiddletownJournal.com

Some business leaders are feeling ill over a proposal to mandate paid sick days, which may appear on Ohio ballots this November.

Ohioans for Healthy Families, the group backing the sick days proposal, filed a petition to Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on Wednesday, Aug. 5, containing about 240,000 signatures, almost double the 120,683 signatures needed to get a proposed state law on the ballot.

The proposed law would require businesses and organizations with 25 or more workers to let employees earn seven paid sick days a year.

Although backers argue the law would give workers the time they deserve, local leaders said it will put businesses at a disadvantage competitively.

Such a mandate also could force businesses to take away other benefits from employees, taking away the workers' freedom to choose what incentives they prefer, said Bill Triick, president of the Chamber of Commerce serving Middletown, Trenton and Monroe.

"It's up to an employer and the (employees) to decide to this benefit or not, as long as they agree to something," he said. "It is inappropriate for a state law to require them to have it."

It also may unduly influence businesses not to expand its employee base if it will be required to offer mandatory sick days as well, Triick added.

The Butler County Chamber Caucus has come out against the issue and plans to "push hard for rest of year to mobilize the business community and others to defeat this issue at the polls," said Kenny Craig, president of the Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce.

Gov. Ted Strickland has been trying to work out a compromise between backers of the sick days proposal and business groups that oppose it to keep it off the ballot. The last day to get it off the ballot is Sept. 5. Negotiations continue, Amanda Wurst, Strickland's spokeswoman said.