LANSING. (AP) - Michigan Republicans' lame-duck maneuver to weaken voter-proposed minimum wage and paid sick leave laws was unconstitutional, organizers of the ballot initiatives said in lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The complaint came more than 16 months after the state Supreme Court declined to issue a rare advisory opinion on the legality of the move, which could have prevented a lengthy court fight.
In 2018, the GOP-controlled Legislature engaged in "adopt and amend," a controversial and unprecedented strategy. To prevent minimum wage and sick time ballot drives from going to the electorate, after which they would have been much harder to change if voters had passed them, legislators approved them so they could be made more business-friendly after the election with simple majority votes and the signature of the outgoing Republican governor, Rick Snyder.
The suit in the state Court of Claims says the state constitution forbids the Legislature from amending an initiative petition that it has enacted in the same session. The laws are "null and void," and the original bills are "in full force and effect," according to the filing.
One new law gradually increases the state's minimum wage to $12.05 an hour by 2030, instead of to $12 by 2022, as was initially enacted. The other exempts employers with fewer than 50 employees from having to provide paid sick days, a change that is estimated to leave up to 1 million employees without the benefit - unlike what was proposed. It also limits the amount of annual mandatory leave at larger employers to 40 hours, instead of 72 hours.
Plaintiffs include Michigan One Fair Wage and Michigan Time to Care - which organized the ballot drives - other groups and two residents who say they lost out on wages, earned sick days or both.
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