Weekend Roundup: Sick-leave Lawsuit SATX, Fair Chance Act Passed, And More

This past week in San Antonio, the ordinance regarding paid sick leave that was supposed to go into effect August 1 was delayed until December 1 because of a lawsuit backed by city officials and business groups. In other headlines, the House passed the Fair Chance Act proposed by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Kamala Harris, and there is now a woman on every Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 company’s board. There has been a push for board diversity in recent years. Click the headlines to get all the details in today’s Weekend Roundup:

Implementation of San Antonio Paid Sick-leave Requirement Delayed Amid Court Fight

A district judge signed off on a deal Wednesday to delay the implementation of a paid sick-leave ordinance slated to go into effect August 1—dealing yet another blow to community organizers who have championed the rule in some of Texas’ biggest cities.

The decision comes after city officials and the business groups suing over the policy agreed to postpone the ordinance’s implementation from August until December. A spokesman for the city argued the delay would give San Antonio a chance to refine the proposal.

The ordinance—versions of which have been approved in San Antonio, Austin and Dallas—requires businesses with more than 15 employees to allow workers to accrue 64 hours of paid sick leave per year. For employers with fewer than 15 workers, the amount would be capped at 48 hours.

House Passes Fair Chance Act

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation prohibiting federal agencies and federal contractors from asking about job applicants’ criminal history until after making a conditional employment offer.

“This legislation will remove the steep hurdles that deny individuals who have paid their debt to society from finding a job and allow them to have the dignity of work,” said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., a leading co-sponsor of the bill.

The Last All-Male Board On The S&P 500 Just Added A Female Member

There is now a woman on the board of every S&P 500 company.

Copart, a Dallas-based used car seller, was the last company in the index without a female member until it announced earlier this week that it had appointed Diane Morefield to its board of directors.

Morefield, 61, is the chief financial officer of real estate investment firm CyrusOne and served as a real estate banker with Barclays Bank earlier in her career.

Female participation on corporate boards has slowly increased over the years. According to a report by Equilar, a research firm that analyzes company’s boards, one in eight S&P 500 boards was all-male in 2012. Women now make up 27 percent of all board seats, a nearly 17 percent jump from 2012.

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