Princeton council members are considering a report that claims extending sick pay benefits to all workers will not have a large financial impact on the town.
PRINCETON - Months of discussion regarding whether to extend sick pay benefits to all part-time municipal workers came to a head Monday in the form of report released by town officials.
The new Princeton logo designed by town resident Jeff Leonard. The financial impact of the proposed extension of sick pay? Not that significant, according to the report.
The discussion was prompted by an ordinance proposed earlier this year which suggested extending paid sick leave to municipal employees working fewer than 20 hours per week. Currently the town only provides paid sick leave to employees who work 20 hours or more per week.
The report, which was presented by Town Administrator Marc Dashield at a council meeting Monday gave an overview of how much estimated additional sick leave each part-time department would take if the ordinance passed. It examined everything from garage workers and crossing guards to seasonal employees like lifeguards.
At the meeting Monday night, council members raised questions about how exactly the town could implement the new sick leave policy and what restrictions they would need to put in place.
In the proposed ordinance, a part time employee would be able to accrue one hour of sick leave per 30 hours worked and would not be eligible to use the sick leave until they have worked 90 days.
Town administrator Marc Dashield also recommended Monday that the town require workers who are out sick to make a "documented effort" to find a replacement.
For many council members who spoke Monday, implementing the policy was not just the easy thing to do, but the right one as well.
"This is an issue of fairness and humanity," Councilwoman Jenny Crumiller said Monday.
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Her words were met with agreement from most other council members - though some still had questions about how the policy change would be put in place and whether the town should require sick workers to find replacements.
Craig Garcia, a representative from New Jersey Working Families, who spoke at the meeting Monday disagreed with Dashield's suggestion about requiring workers to find replacements.
"If you have a health emergency, you have a health emergency," he said to council members. He added that requesting employees find their own replacements was fair but that, "making it a requirement seems very difficult to enforce."
Garcia also spoke later about the more expansive impact that the ordinance could have by providing a guide for private businesses and other New Jersey towns to follow.
Councilwoman Heather Howard spoke at the meeting, just touching on that impact. The town cannot impose a similar sick leave policy on Princeton businesses without first implementing the policy themselves, Howard said.
Garcia echoed her words.
"The municipality is paving the way - showing it's completely doable, it's quite affordable. The same bears out with the private sector," Garcia said after the meeting.
Princeton is not the first to discuss the issue of sick pay - though other towns and cities have already started moving for even private employers to provide paid sick leave benefits. In late October Jersey City council members voted to extend sick pay benefits to non-municipal workers employed at businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
Council members ended the discussion Monday by deciding to let Dashield work on specifics of implementing the policy change with other town officials before bringing it before council again in the near future.
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.
