Lawsuit Delays Pittsburgh’s Paid Sick Days Act Effective Date

The city of Pittsburgh recently passed the Paid Sick Days Act to provide paid or unpaid sick time to employees working in the City. Employers with 15 or more employees must provide employees with no more than 40 hours of paid sick time in a year. Employers with 15 employees or less must provide employees with no more than 24 hours of unpaid sick time the first year after the Act’s effective date. Thereafter, employees working for employers with 15 employees or less are entitled to accrue up to 24 hours of paid sick time per year.

The Paid Sick Days Act was scheduled to go into effect January 11, 2016. A lawsuit against the city of Pittsburgh, however, has delayed the effective date to March 10, 2016. Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph James signed an order on October 22, 2015 where he stated that “implementation, application and enforcement” of the new sick leave law will take place in 60 days. As a result, Pittsburgh’s Law Department recommended removing the posted information on the new law until a court ruling.

CPC will continue to monitor this pending change for any new developments.