By Holly Otterbein

– The law will go into effect in three months. Did its anticipated passage help Philly land the DNC?

– Mayor Michael Nutter signed mandatory paid sick leave into law Thursday, just hours after City Council passed the legislation.

“I think we finally struck the right balance between the needs of employees and employers,” said Nutter. “That’s been my goal from day one.”

At a bill-signing ceremony, Nutter noted that Philadelphia was selected today to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
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“We’re going to do something really great for citizens of Philadelphia,” said Nutter, “and also help to carry this message across the United States of America.”

City Councilman Bill Greenlee, the sponsor of the bill, said that rumor has it that the anticipated passage of paid sick leave helped Philly land the convention. “It helped,” Nutter said.

The law will go into effect in 90 days.
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[Original, 11:51 p.m.] City Councilman Bill Greenlee won his seven-year fight Thursday to pass legislation requiring Philadelphia businesses to provide paid sick leave to their employees.

The City Council passed the bill 14-2.

The legislation mandates that companies with at least 10 employees offer the benefit. Employees would earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked, for a maximum total of five days annually.

This is the third time since 2008 that Greenlee has introduced paid sick leave legislation. Mayor Michael Nutter twice vetoed such bills, but he has announced that he’ll sign it today at 2:30 p.m. at City Hall. Everett Gillison, Nutter’s chief-of-staff, says Nutter did not believe the time was right for paid sick leave in past years because the city was still grappling with the recession.

Greenlee’s remarks on the Council floor were brief. He said, “Earned paid sick leave is the right thing to do … let’s finally do it.”

Source: http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/02/12/7-year-fight-council-passes-michael-nutter-signs-philadelphia-paid-sick-leave/

By Francis Hilario

– The Democratic Party has chosen Philadelphia to host its 2016 national convention.

“In addition to their commitment to a seamless and safe convention, Philadelphia’s deep rooted place in American history provides a perfect setting for this special gathering. I cannot wait to join Democrats across the country to celebrate our shared values, lay out a Democratic vision for the future, and support our nominee,” said DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Thursday.

Philadelphia was one of three finalists for the convention, along with Brooklyn and Columbus, Ohio.

The convention, held the week of July 25, will serve as a passing of the torch from President Barack Obama to the winner of the Democratic primary. At this point, Hillary Rodham Clinton is leading many of the polls, but 2016 is still a long way away.

The Democratic convention will be a huge boon for the city, with thousands of people, media and economic impact expected to come to Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. The DNC anticipates 50,000 attendees, filling up to 80,000 hotel room-nights, based on projections from its 2008 convention in Denver.

The last time Philadelphia held a national convention was in 2000, when the Republican party held its convention from July 31-Aug. 3.

The RNC brought in more than 45,000 people to the First Union Center (now the Wells Fargo Center) and 15,000 members of the media. The convention had an economic impact of $170 million, with a combined direct and indirect impact of $345 million.

RNC attendees also booked 111,000 hotel room-nights, creating hotel revenues of about $25 million. The convention created 4,777 full-time equivalent jobs in the region during the summer, generating $167 million in personal income.

Next year’s RNC will take place July 18-21 in Cleveland.

Choosing a host city was based on a number of factors, including the city’s transportation, hotels and the facility holding the convention, experts said in interviews last month. Other factors for any convention included the city’s political leadership and financial resources.

“The kind of factors that are probably the most important in terms of valuation of cities are the obvious ones: Hotels, the facility to hold the event in [and] logistics,” Alan Kessler, former finance vice chair of the DNC said in an earlier interview with the Philadelphia Business Journal. “The single most important is financial guarantee.”

Our panel of experts — including Gov. Ed Rendell— handicapped each city’s chance for the big score recently back when five cities were still in contention. Check it out here.

Gov. Tom Wolf made the following statement:

“Today’s announcement is tremendous news for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The birthplace of our democracy will host the Democratic National Convention in 2016, which will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity in the state. We look forward to working with local leaders to ensure that Philadelphia will shine in the national spotlight.”

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2015/02/12/philadelphia-will-host-the-2016-democratic.html

By Katie Colaneri

– Governor Tom Wolf made good on a campaign promise Wednesday and proposed a severance tax on natural gas drilling. Speaking in an elementary school classroom in Thorndale, Chester County, Wolf said the “lion’s share” of the revenue will go to hiking overall funding for public education.

“We sit on top of one of the richest deposits of natural gas in the world,” he said. “We have the natural resources to actually do something about the problem here.”

Wolf’s proposal calls for a 5 percent tax on the value of natural gas at the wellhead, plus 4.7 cents per thousand cubic feet of volume pulled out of the ground to hedge against fluctuations in prices. The governor’s plan is modeled on neighboring West Virginia’s severance tax structure and he projects it would generate $1 billion in its first year, which is about $800,000 more each year than the current impact fee.

Since 2012, drillers have paid a fee for every well with most of the money going back to communities that host the drilling.

Under Wolf’s proposal, the tax would replace the impact fee while maintaining a certain portion of revenue for impacted communities. The governor said he has not yet “worked out the formula” for how much of the money would be distributed among local governments and spent on education, as well as boosting environmental protection.

Polls have shown public support for a severance tax in Pennsylvania. However, the natural gas industry has lobbied against it, claiming it would create an unfriendly business climate in the state and could prompt a slow-down in drilling operations.

“Make no mistake, adding a five percent tax to any business sector – including the energy industry – is going to reduce capital spending and hit the supply chain, especially Pennsylvania-based small and mid-sized businesses, as well as our region’s labor and building trades,” said Marcellus Shale Coalition president Dave Spigelmyer in a press release.

Wolf believes the tax will garner more public support for natural gas drillers.

“I think this is the best thing that could happen to the industry because it could make all of us in Pennsylvania partners in the success of this industry,” he said. “So my argument to them is this is really smart.”

The Democrat will also have to contend with leaders in Pennsylvania’s Republican legislature who have other priorities, including pension reform and privatizing state-run liquor stores.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R- Centre) said he understand’s Wolf’s interest in a severance tax, but pension reform is a more pressing matter.

“We repeatedly have said we cannot consider new revenue until we deal with pensions, which will have the effect of saving significant tax dollars,” Corman said in a statement. “We have a bucket that is leaking. It would be a misstep to persist at putting water in the bucket without first plugging the leak.”

A spokesman for House Speaker Mike Turzai (R-Marshall), who opposes a severance tax, did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

Source: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/78396-wolf-proposes-5-percent-tax-on-gas-drillers-to-fund-education?linktype=hp_impact

By Julie Foster

– Note: This information does not constitute legal advice. The law is constantly changing and application of the ADA depends on the specific circumstances of each case. Consult an attorney when faced with legal issues.

– The first thing you must do is ask for an accommodation. You are not required to make the request in writing but it is best practice to put everything writing.

What should I say?

Write to your supervisor, human resources manager, and any managers who oversee your supervisor that you have a disability and are requesting a reasonable accommodation. Explain that nature of your disability and what job tasks you need help with at work. For example: I have a visual impairment and need accommodations to read documents. You can also suggest a particular accommodation, such as a screen reader. You may need more than one accommodation to perform the essential functions of your job. Be as specific as possible in explaining your impairment(s) what you need to do your job.

Then what should I do?

Your employer must respond to your request within a reasonable amount of time. Your employer does not have to give you the specific accommodation that you requested, but does have to discuss your accommodations needs with you in good faith; this is called the interactive process. Document all responses in writing with dates. If the employer responded to you verbally, send a follow up email summarizing your conversation. Keep a copy of all of these documents.

Your employer may ask for medical documentation from you if your disability is not “obvious” such as a heart condition. You have an obligation to respond promptly to your employer’s requests for information. The goal of the interactive process is to exchange information about your medical condition and your employer’s workplace modification options to find solutions that enable you do to your job.

What if my employer says my accommodation request is unreasonable?

You and your employer should continue the interactive process to determine whether there is an accommodation that would enable you to do your job without imposing an undue burden on the employer. Whether a particular accommodation is reasonable depends on the nature of the job, the size and resources of the employer, the number of other employees available to take on nonessential job functions, the nature of the accommodation, and other factors. An accommodation is not unreasonable merely because it will cost your employer a nominal amount of money.

What if my employer never responds?

You can make follow-up requests every week–be persistent! But do not wait more than a few months. You only have 6 months to file a claim under Pennsylvania law and 300 days to file a claim under federal law (45 days if you are a federal employee). If you want to file a legal charge because your employer refuses to provide a reasonable accommodation, you can file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

If you need free advice on how to obtain an accommodation, contact the disability employment discrimination project at the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia at disabilityintake@pilcop.org or 215-267-7100. You can also find more information on the provision of reasonable accommodations at http://www.pilcop.org/know-your-rights.

By Laura Clawson

– The oil workers strike widened over the weekend, with 1,400 workers at two BP refineries in Indiana and Ohio walking out:

The first nationwide strike by oil refinery workers since 1980, the addition of BP’s Whiting, Indiana, refinery and the company’s joint-venture refinery with Husky Energy in Toledo, Ohio, brings the total number of plants with strikers to 11, including refineries accounting for about 13 percent of total U.S. oil refining capacity. The original strike included workers in California, Kentucky, Texas and Washington.

The workers are emphasizing safety concerns, with good reason:

In January there were at least four major mishaps at a U.S. pipelines that resulted in costly explosions or spills. In 2013, Texas led the country in oil and gas sector fatalities with 106. Overall, oil and gas workers are six times more likely to die on the job than average Americans. With the recent growth of the industry due to the proliferation of new drilling techniques such as fracking, safety measures can suffer. In North Dakota, which has been at the forefront of the oil boom, the fatality rate for industry workers was three times the national average in 2013.

The companies are using scab labor to staff the affected plants, with one at half capacity due to delayed maintenance. Meanwhile, Shell continues to serve as the lead management-side negotiator for a nationwide contract. Late last week, the United Steelworkers rejected the latest offer from Shell as containing “minimal movement.”

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/09/1363329/-Largest-oil-workers-strike-in-decades-expands