Update, Mar. 30, 2020, via Brian Farrington: The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has issued a preliminary injunction against the City of Dallas, preventing enforcement of Dallas’ paid sick leave ordinance. Read complete update here.
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Update, Aug. 14, 2019: Interim Dallas City Attorney, Chris Caso, filed to move the Dallas Ordinance case from the Eastern District to the Northern District Court of Texas in Dallas.
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Original Article, from Casey Erick:
The fate of a new paid sick time ordinance for Dallas workers is now in the hands of a federal judge.
The ordinance, which adds a new chapter to the City Code, would require all businesses — for-profit and nonprofit — to provide paid sick leave if they don’t already do so. Employees will earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.
Clergy members, labor and community organizations had pushed for the measure, primarily aimed at service jobs, as a way to help low-income working families who don’t have the time-off benefits enjoyed by many higher-income workers. But, the Legislature was looking to weigh in on the debate and kill such local mandates, that some groups said would be overly burdensome to businesses. Dallas would have joined Austin and San Antonio as the only major Texas cities to require paid sick leave if the ordinance stood.
On July 30, 2019, two companies, ESI/Employee Solutions, LP and Ragan Law Group, LLC sued the City of Dallas in a bid to stop the ordinance from taking effect. August 6th, the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, joined the lawsuit. As of August 7th, the federal court has not issued an order to stop the new ordinance, which remains in effect. The case is pending in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Cause No. 4:19-cv-00570, Amos L. Mazzant, III, presiding.
