meunierd/Shutterstock
A bill that would, if it becomes law, provide earned sick leave for employees in the state passed along party lines in the House Labor, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on Thursday.
The bill passed 5 to 3 with one Democrat absent during the vote.
The committee substitute for HB 20, known as the Healthy Workplace Act, was not available online as of Thursday night. Last week, two paid sick leave bills, HB 20 and HB 37 were both heard together in the same committee. At the end of a lengthy debate and considerable public testimony around the bill last week, committee chair Eliseo Lee Alcon, D-Milan, sent the sponsors of the two bills to roll them into one piece of legislation. He speculated the bills would not pass through the House Judiciary Committee otherwise.
Related:
Workers testified for hours about the need for paid sick leave. One person who testified said her husband could not take time off from work to say good-bye to her when they thought she was dying in the hospital. Although she recovered, she said her family had scheduled back surgery for her during the pandemic because it was the only time her husband could afford to be with her because he lacked paid time off as a restaurant worker.
Albuquerque City Councilor Lan Sena, who testified last year to the need for a state healthcare fund, testified Thursday with a story of encountering small children who were waiting for chemotherapy treatment without parental supervision because their parents cannot take time off from work.
A legislative bill will be considered by the Utah House that would fix a gap in the legal justice system that allowed two brothers convicted in the death of a police officer to be released early. The mother of the slain officer says a disconnect ‘rewarded’ the teenagers for committing new crimes.
HB113 would allow pregnant women to seek payment for half of out-of-pocket pregnancy and delivery bills and insurance premiums from the biological father.