The so-called “Sodexo” bill failed in the Senate on Tuesday. The legislation would have prohibited companies from penalizing employees who use sick leave time.
The 14-12 vote came as something of a surprise to the lead sponsor of the bill, Sen. Phil Baruth, D-Chittenden. The legislation, S.113, passed with a nearly unanimous vote last year and met a dead end in the House.
“I really think we’re losing the balance between protecting workers and businesses,” Baruth said. “Maybe it’s inevitable coming out of the recession, but we need to get back that balance for Vermont workers and also for our own integrity as a body.”
Baruth said senators were heavily lobbied by the Vermont Grocers and Retailers Association, the Vermont Chamber of Commerce and the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce. “That’s a tough group of people to go up against,” Baruth said.
The business groups circulated a letter to senators before the vote that raised questions about the legal ramifications of the bill. “If enacted, the provision could serve as a disincentive for employers to provide benefits to employees because it would not only preclude the employer from taking disciplinary action when appropriate, but it would also increase the employer’s exposure to future litigation,” they wrote.
The vote to block the bill’s passage was bipartisan, with conservative Democrats linking arms with Republicans. The narrow vote bodes ill for another labor bill that would require companies to offer paid sick leave to employees.
Betsy Bishop, director of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, said, “People saw the merits of our arguments on all sides.”
Baruth, who is a professor at the University of Vermont, says Sodexo food service workers at the college had complained to him that they had been penalized for taking sick time. He proposed the prohibition on retaliation last biennium. The legislation doesn’t allow workers to use sick time for anything other than an illness.
“We didn’t want sick people going to work in the food industry,” Baruth said. He characterized the bill as a labor and public health protection measure.
Sodexo is one of the state’s largest employers. About 1,000 Vermonters work for the company in 27 locations across the state, including UVM and the Vermont State Colleges system.
Sen. Peg Flory, R-Rutland, said crafting legislation for one employer that has caused a problem “is a dangerous route to take.”
Baruth rejected the notion that the bill targets a company. “It targets a practice,” he said.
The Senate-passed microbead bill, which bans the use of plastic beads in skin care products, is similar, in his view. “It’s an innovation that is injurious to the health of the state. We as body wouldn’t wait until more companies adopt the practice,” Baruth said. “I believe it’s our responsibility to step in.”
