St. Paul Chamber pushes back on mandatory sick leave plans

The St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce is pushing back on some of the reasoning behind the city's moves to consider a mandatory sick leave policy for employers.

St. Paul City Council members voted to launch a study of sick time earlier this month, partly due to reports of food-borne illness in state health data. However, chamber president Matt Kramer said the risk should be put in perspective and that reports of sick food-service workers spreading disease are rare in the city, according to state health data.

Many cases may be unreported, Kramer said, but employers don't want the risk to be exaggerated, either.

"When the City Council cites Minnesota Department of Health data to demonstrate there is a perceived problem, it's worthwhile to go into the data and say yeah, while there were 200 some cases over 10 years statewide, in 2012, there was one in St. Paul," he said.

The city plans a fourth and final public listening session on sick time for Wednesday. At that time, deadlines close for applications to serve on a city task force to consider possible sick leave policies.

Minneapolis officials are looking at this issue as well, after a minimum wage effort fell short there last year.