Wednesday, May 20, 2015
City Council Cleans Up Minimum Wage Ordinance Language, Reauthorizes
Last night the Emeryville City Council placed the conteteous minimum wage law on a new schedule after they cleaned up language in the ordinance that would have prohibited an employer from changing some pre-existing voluntary benefits to their employees. New language striking that unintended consequence was drafted and the ordinance was given a new first reading, putting the law on a new track with a July 2nd start date. The previous iteration of the ordinance would have started the new law on July 1st. The unintended consequence barring employers from changing their own internal employee benefits was brought to the attention of the City Attorney Mike Biddle by an outside legal firm. The problem might have left the City exposed to litigation Mr Biddle said. The Council vote adapting the change was unanimous.
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They overlooked one really big issue in the ordinance while they were cleaning it up. Much like the Patriot Act, the ordinance gives the city the authority to collect and copy the employment and payroll records of every person working in Emeryville without a warrant, without a reason, and without any protection on what the city can do with that data. The stated purpose for this new power is "monitoring".
ReplyDeleteI don't know about you, but I don't think local government (or any government) should be collecting personal data for the purpose of monitoring all of its citizens. If there's a complaint, then investigate as necessary, but don't just expose everyone's private data to the city for the sake of "monitoring". It's way too Big Brother and provides far too much opportunity for abuse.