AUSTIN—Today, the Texas Third District Court of Appeals rendered its judgment in the paid sick leave case brought against the City of Austin by the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The judgment holds that the City’s paid sick leave ordinance violates the Texas Constitution because it is preempted by the Texas Minimum Wage Act and orders a temporary injunction to be put into effect immediately by the lower court.
“Today’s ruling by the Texas Third Court of Appeals is cause for celebration,” said TPPF’s General Counsel Rob Henneke. “The ruling is an unequivocal win for our clients, whose rights were violated by the City’s ordinance. With today’s ruling, the case is remanded to the district court, who is ordered to enter a temporary injunction preventing the ordinance from becoming effective.”
TPPF attorney Ryan Walters offered the following statement:
“This ruling by the Third Court of Appeals not only grants immediate relief to our clients by ordering that the paid sick leave ordinance be temporarily enjoined while the proceedings in the trial court continue; even more importantly, it holds as a matter of law that the ordinance is unlawful because it violates the Texas Minimum Wage Act. Given this ruling, the ordinance should be permanently prohibited from going into effect.”
TPPF filed a lawsuit in April challenging the constitutionality of the City of Austin’s paid sick leave ordinance. Members of the Austin City Council approved the ordinance with a 9-2 vote in February.
If the ordinance were to go into effect, it would require businesses with more than 15 employees to provide eight days of paid sick leave and businesses with less than 15 employees to provide 6 days of paid sick leave.