Contract Miami Dade security officers will now receive paid sick leave benefits
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY FL Sept 3 2021
Oliver Gilbert, vice-chairperson of the Miami-Dade County Commission, addresses reporters after passage of his legislation requiring paid sick leave for private security guards assigned to county facilities. The ordinance passed the commission on Sept. 1, 2021.
Miami-Dade County will require paid sick leave for hundreds of private security guards working at Miami International Airport, Metrorail stations and other facilities covered by county contracts — reversing course on the kind of benefit expansion that failed in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The benefit requirement will likely mean higher security costs for the county’s transit budget and other expenses as security providers increase costs they charge Miami-Dade for civilian guards at county facilities. Costs also could rise in suburban taxing districts, where property owners pay extra each year to have a county-provided security guard at a gate in front of a community.
Backers of the legislation, led by sponsor Oliver Gilbert, said the higher costs shouldn’t deter Miami-Dade from providing a basic workplace benefit that allows employees to stay home when sick without seeing their paychecks shrink.
“We are forcing them to come to work sick, or to forsake money they can’t afford to forsake,” Gilbert, vice chairperson of the commission, said ahead of the commission vote to require the paid leave. “My vote is we should actually have to pay for this.”
The measure would cover more than 1,000 guards, according to Ana Tinsly, a spokesperson for the 32BJ chapter of the Service Employees International Union, which represents county guards and lobbied for the law change.
One commissioner, René Garcia, voted against Gilbert’s ordinance. Commissioner Joe Martinez was absent for the vote.
Gilbert pared down his original proposal to win support on the board, dropping language that would have imposed the sick-leave benefit to other county contracts, including for janitors, landscaping crews and restaurant services at Miami International Airport and beyond.
Even so, the lopsided approval vote captured the new political landscape in County Hall after the November elections.
A similar proposal died in committee in May 2020. Miami-Dade was in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, but the election-year proposal failed amid charges it represented Cuba-style socialism.
The sponsor at the time, Daniella Levine Cava, is now the county mayor. Six of the 13 seats are filled by commissioners who took office after Election Day.
“This is a very proud day for Miami-Dade County,” Levine Cava said in a press conference after the vote organized by SEIU. “We cannot forget the value of hard work.”
The passed ordinance applies to new contracts and renewals, but includes a provision authorizing Levine Cava to approve fee increases with existing security providers to adopt the paid-leave benefits.
Jamila McCormick, a security guard for Allied Universal assigned to county Water and Sewer facilities, said she’s had to eat lost wages when dealing with migraine headaches too severe to come to work.
“It was at the beginning of the month, when rent is due,” she said. “It was a pretty big hit.”
Angel Colon, a Metrorail security guard with Allied Universal, said the pandemic raised anxiety about who should be staying home with an illness.
“You see coworkers who come to work sick, without knowing what they have,” he said. “They have no choice. You don’t come to work, you don’t get paid.”
Miami Herald
