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Massachusetts Limit Accrual of Unused Sick Leave Credits Initiative (2020)

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Massachusetts Limit Accrual of Unused Sick Leave Credits Initiative
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Election date
November 3, 2020
Topic
Labor and unions
Status
Not on the ballot
Type
State statute
Origin
Citizens


The Massachusetts Limit Accrual of Unused Sick Leave Credits Initiative (#19-16) was not on the ballot in Massachusetts as an indirect initiated state statute on November 3, 2020.

The measure was designed to prohibit public employees from accruing more than 1,000 hours of unused sick leave.[1][2]

Text of measure

Ballot summary

The final ballot summary for the measure was as follows:[3]

Initiative 19-16 ballot summary
This proposed law would limit to 1,000 hours the credits for unused sick leave that employees of state agencies, state authorities, and public institutions of higher education could accrue. The law would provide that employees who have already accrued more than 1,000 hours of sick leave credits would not lose any of that time, but they would not be allowed to accrue any additional sick leave over 1,000 hours.

The proposed law would not override any existing contract or collective bargaining agreement that allowed for higher sickleave credit accruals, but the 1,000 hour limit would take effect on the expiration of any such contract. The proposed law states that, if any of its parts were declared invalid, the other parts would stay in effect. The proposed law would take effect on January 1, 2021.[4]

Full text

The full text of the measure is available here.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Massachusetts

In Massachusetts, the number of signatures required to qualify an indirect initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 3.5 percent of the votes cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election. No more than one-quarter of the verified signatures on any petition can come from a single county. The process for initiated state statutes in Massachusetts is indirect, which means the legislature has a chance to approve initiatives with successful petitions directly without the measure going to the voters. A first round of signatures equal to 3 percent of the votes cast for governor is required to put an initiative before the legislature. A second round of signatures equal to 0.5 percent of the votes cast for governor in the last election is required to put the measure on the ballot if the legislature rejects or declines to act on a proposed initiated statute. Signatures for initiated statutes in Massachusetts are collected in two circulation periods. The first period runs from the third Wednesday in September to two weeks prior to the first Wednesday in December, a period of nine weeks. If the proposed law is not adopted by the first Wednesday of May, petitioners then have until the first Wednesday of July (eight weeks) to request additional petition forms and submit the second round of signatures.

The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the 2020 ballot:

If enough signatures are submitted in the first round, the legislature must act on a successful petition by the first Wednesday of May. The measure only goes on the ballot if the legislature does not pass it and if the second round of signatures is successfully collected.

Details about this initiative

  • The initiative was cleared to circulate on September 4, 2019.[1]
  • Initiative sponsors did not submit signatures to the secretary of state by the December 4, 2019 deadline.[5]

See also

External links

Footnotes