Legislators sustain Mills' vetoes of progressive labor and criminal justice reform bills
Continuing a pattern of opposition to a number of progressive labor and criminal justice measures, Gov. Janet Mills late last week vetoed a bill to bar retaliation by employers against workers who use paid time off and legislation to make pretrial conditions of release less restrictive. Both vetoes were upheld by the Maine House in votes on Monday.
In total, Mills vetoed five bills from the 2022 legislative session, none of which were overturned by the legislature.
Late Friday, the governor issued a veto of LD 1338, the paid time off retaliation bill. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Millett (D-Cape Elizabeth), was meant to address a loophole in Maine’s first-in-the-nation paid time off law, signed in 2019. As Beacon previously reported, explicit protection from retaliation for workers taking leave was cut out during backroom negotiations on the bill amid a rewriting of the legislation by the Mills administration. Advocates fear that lack of protection could lead to workers being scared to use paid time off or being punished if they do use the time.
The House on Monday sustained Mills’ veto of LD 1338, with 58 members voting in favor of the bill and 59 voting with the governor. A few Democrats, such as Reps. Teresa Pierce of Falmouth, Anne Perry of Calais, Ed Crockett of Portland, and Scott Landry of Farmington, voted with the governor and against the bill. Each voted for the bill when it passed the House last year.
In her letter announcing the veto of LD 1338, Mills wrote that the absence in the 2019 law of a clause barring retaliation was “intentional” and was “so that employers and employees would have an opportunity to experience the new law and potential impacts of the law.”
Read more: https://mainebeacon.com/legislators-sustain-mills-vetoes-of-progressive-labor-and-criminal-justice-reform-bills/