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Nutter's Veto Of Paid Sick Leave Bill Is Likely To Stand

By Mike Dunn

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A plan to require that Philadelphia businesses offer workers paid sick leave appears likely to die in City Council today. And the sponsor has harsh words for Mayor Nutter, who vetoed the bill.

"Hypocritical. How about that?" councilman Bill Greenlee asks. "I think it was hypocritical."

Greenlee says it was hypocritical for Mayor Nutter to push for a ban on public smoking and to propose a soda tax for its health benefits yet still reject a bill to require paid sick leave in Philadelphia:

"One of the mayor's arguments (for the smoking ban) when he was a councilman (was) that the health of workers should be paramount."

The mayor says mandatory paid sick leave would result in job cuts that would hurt "the very workers this bill is intended to help." Greenlee meantime has spent hours trying to get one of the six council members who voted against it to change sides and vote to override the veto.

The one considered most likely to flip, GOP Councilman-at-large Dennis O'Brien, is firm in his opposition. He says the measure is too expansive:

"The definitions in the bill are a little broad, and it's a difficult time to consider it."

And without a 12th vote to override, Greenlee's measure will die. It would be the second time in three years the proposal faced that fate.

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