City Councilwoman Gale Brewer will probably need to take some days off over this: Her crazy new sick-leave bill is being shelved indefinitely by Council Speaker Chris Quinn.
Thank goodness.
Quinn is reportedly once again refusing to move forward with the legislation, which would require any business with five or more employees to grant its workers at least five sick days every year.
As The Post’s Sally Goldenberg reported Tuesday, the bill was sold as a “compromise” because it eased off the nine sick days demanded in earlier drafts.
But this bill is far worse in other ways.
It would give the Health Department the power to subpoena, investigate and audit nearly every business in the city for sick-day compliance — and it would impose mandatory fines for paperwork “violations.”
The bill’s penalties are mind-boggling:
* If an employee takes a sick day and isn’t paid, the employer pays a fine to the city and gives the employee $500 or three days’ salary, whichever is more.
* If an employee is refused a sick day, the employer pays at least $1,000.
* If an employee faces “retaliation” for taking a sick day, he gets $1,000 and other “equitable relief” determined by the tribunal — possibly including a promotion.
* If an employee is fired for taking a sick day, he gets $5,000 — and other goodies, including reinstatement and a promotion.
Now, even if much of that is meant to be jettisoned during legislative negotiations, mandatory sick leave is still nonsense.
Fact is, New York’s economy is far too precarious to take another lashing in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Businesses small and large took a beating last month, and the added weight of mandatory sick-leave would surely sink dozens more of them, killing jobs and hurting the very folks the bill purports to help.
Of course, it would be better if Quinn simply put a stake in the bill’s heart.
Five sick days may sound like small potatoes, but Brewer’s bill would savage many New York businesses’ bottom lines.
There’s the straight cost from sick days, which would be in the hundreds of millions. There’s the onerous paperwork employers would have to maintain, which means more headaches and fines of at least $1,000 for every bookkeeping infraction.
And there’s the constant fear of investigation from a Health Department eager to acquire even more instruments of torture.
Brewer’s bill needs to die — for good.
We hope Quinn sees that clearly.