SAN ANTONIO — Mandatory paid sick leave in San Antonio was supposed to go into effect next week, but now it could be pushed to the end of the year.
Lawyers wanting to stall the start date filed an emergency hearing that took place Monday morning.
They were hoping to get the ordinance changed to Dec. 1 to give businesses and city officials more time to work out the details and make adjustments.
Move Texas Advocacy Manager Alex Birnel said they've had enough time already.
"We don't believe that working families in Texas deserve that," Birnel said. "We've been working with the community, telling them August first for a year and a half, so we find it disrespectful to all that work that at the 11th hour there's parties asking for a delay of implementation."
Last year, organizations pushing for paid sick leave gathered more than 140,000 signatures on a petition to put the ordinance on the ballot, but instead, the city council adopted the order.
Members of Move Texas and the Texas Organization Project gathered outside the courthouse before the hearing to show their support for the ordinance.
"Working Texans deserve that relief now and it's the relief they've been told they're going to get up until this point," Birnel said.
Those asking for the delay also want to see how the Texas Supreme Court rules on a similar ordinance in Austin. If Austin's in ruled unconstitutional, the same could happen further south.
Companies suing the city and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, feel the ordinance isn't fair.
According to Paxton’s office, only the Texas Legislature has the legal capacity to establish minimum amounts of paid time off.
"San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and other cities cannot be allowed to pass their own laws simply because they dislike state law or disagree with the judgment of the state’s elected representatives,” Paxton said in a press release issued Friday. “The Legislature established the minimum amount of compensation for workers, and the Texas Constitution prohibits local municipalities from ignoring the Legislature’s decision.”
Monday's emergency hearing was ultimately cancelled since the plaintiffs didn't give the proper three-day notice.
They'll be back in the courthouse on Wednesday along with supporters.
Following the postponement, City Attorney Andy Segovia issued the following statement:
"The proposed agreed order to delay implementation of the Paid Sick Leave Ordinance preserves the ordinance, the work of the Council-appointed Commission and the ability of the City Council to make timely adjustments to the ordinance, if it chooses. By contrast, a court order indefinitely suspending implementation – such as what happened in the City of Austin – risks losing all of those things."