City of Ithaca considers ‘just cause’ worker protections

Opponents say legislation would place unnecessary burdens on businesses

The Ithaca Common Council voted recently to accept a memo advancing discussions on whether to pursue local “just cause” labor legislation that supporters say could safeguard job security for hundreds of Ithaca workers each year, while critics warn it could impose costly burdens on small businesses and the city itself.

At a special voting meeting Sept. 17, members of the Common Council voted unanimously to accept a council memo regarding the Worker Protections and Just Cause Working Group and legislative next steps. The acceptance of the memo simply indicates that the council accepts receipt of the memo and the report therein and thanks the author for it — not that the council will take any further steps to implement the ideas within the memo at this time.

What do “just cause” labor protections do, and are they needed in Ithaca?

Proponents of enacting just cause labor protections throughout the city say that the protections can be expected to increase economic stability for Ithaca workers and the city economy.

While city officials are a long way from drafting a local law detailing specific requirements, common aspects of just cause legislation alluded to in the city memo include requiring employers to adopt a progressive disciplinary system, to give notice of termination, and to give proper justification for the firing of an employee.

“Adopting just cause legislation would empower the city to establish a Workers’ Rights Commission responsible for reviewing complaints and determining whether employers have violated workers’ rights,” the memo states. “If a violation is found, the Commission could impose fines on the employer, helping to offset staffing costs and allowing the initiative to remain budget neutral.”

The memo points to New York City, where the city council passed “the Fair Work Week Law” for workers in the fast-food industry, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the city passed just cause protections for the city’s parking employees, as two municipalities where just cause legislation has been enacted.

In an effort to demonstrate that there is a need for a just cause labor law, the memo includes data from the Tompkins County Workers Center.

“Data obtained by the Tompkins County Workers Center, which showed 1,300 workers reported feeling unjustly fired at work, suggests that this is an issue impacting hundreds of Ithaca workers every year,” the memo states. “Under Just Cause Labor Protections, terminations meeting these conditions — failing to follow a preceding progressive disciplinary system or lacking a justification — would not be possible, thus ensuring greater job security.”

Common Council’s process leading up to current discussions

The memo, dated Aug. 28, was originally sent to Common Council by Alderperson Ducson Nguyen, who was at the time the chair of the working group. At the recent meeting, it was announced that from now on Alderperson Kayla Matos will be chair of the group.

The discussion of the memo came after the council received input from several members of the public at the Sept. 3 Common Council meeting.

“We got a lot of feedback at the council meeting this month about gathering more public input, and at the end of last year, that was the intent — to convene at least one public forum,” Nguyen said. “Scheduling was difficult, and then the year started, and then we kind of lost sight of that. … I know from the discussions we had, we’re all very dedicated to getting as much public input as possible.”

The memo states, “Ithaca workers will face a decreased likelihood of losing their job, as employment termination will only occur following a series of attempts to correct the error at work or if a business can no longer afford their labor,” citing a 2022 National Employment Law Project study that showed 69% of surveyed United States workers report having been given an unfair or reason for being terminated, while 72% of surveyed workers report being fired and given no warning or chance to improve.

The memo states that in February 2024, the Ithaca Common Council and city manager convened a retreat to identify and determine the city’s legislative priorities. During the retreat, tackling the issue of stronger worker protections, such as “just cause” (regulation requiring justification and notice for an employee’s termination) were identified as a top issue for multiple Ithaca alderpersons and their constituents.

At the conclusion of the retreat, the collective of Common Councilors and city staff classified Just Cause Worker Protections as a policy with “high impact — high feasibility,” meaning it could provide a serious social and/or economic benefit to the city while also being realistic to implement by city staff.

The following month, Mayor Robert G. Cantelmo appointed a legislative working group with the goal of providing a legislative memo with recommended next steps for the Common Council to pursue by December 2024.

Over the next eight months, the working group met repeatedly to discuss the need for legislative action, consider how to assess the problem and determine how to move forward with next steps.

The memo states that, although not live-streamed or publicized, the working group meetings were open to the public and sparsely attended by Ithaca constituents, community members and stakeholders, including business leaders and labor advocates, invited by the working group to provide their insights into the issue.

Peggy Coleman, president and CEO of Tompkins Chamber, said she was contacted about the consideration of the new legislation in March 2024 but did not receive any further communication from the working group.

“It is from the best of intentions that the city is considering this support for all people, especially our frontline folks who are being dismissed unfairly and not being heard,” Coleman said, “but it’s critical to have a whole understanding of what is happening in the workplace. The majority of businesses in Tompkins County already have in place a tiered process for discipline.”

The stance against “just cause”

“With the workers’ shortage, [employers] are having a hard time even getting people to work, and then they’re doing things beyond capacity to try to keep them employed, getting them the services they need and looking at employees as a whole person,” Coleman said.

“My hope,” she said, “is that the city will be open to getting the input from the business community — from people who are the ones responsible for people’s well-being, who are responsible for making payroll and paying rent and managing the relationships.”

“We are already seeing some businesses reduce their hours because they don’t have enough staff to work,” Coleman added. A scenario where an employee does not show up for work or leaves in the middle of their shift places a burden on other employees to pick up the slack, she said.

In addition, requirements like progressive steps before termination and notice by the employer could have major ramifications for employers, she said.

Coleman gave the example of an employee leaving during their break and failing to return for the remainder of their shift. Under just cause protections, the employer could be required to give multiple warnings before firing the employee and could also have to give the employee a two-week notice of their termination, during which the employee could choose not to show up to work, leaving the employer shorthanded.

“That means you have to hold a position open with no one to staff it,” Coleman said. “So, either the business reduces its hours of operation, or they shorten their hours. And right now, with the way the economy is, our small businesses — they need all the help they can get. This is not going to be helpful in growing the economy in the city — quite the opposite.”  

Coleman said she is also concerned that potential new businesses will pass over Ithaca due to the possibly onerous legislation.

“For those who are looking to bring their businesses to our area, and they’re seeing that a local municipality is basically governing how they will operate their business, they will choose elsewhere,” she said.

Local attorney Nate Cook of Klausner Cook, PLLC, is staunchly opposed to the potential new legislation. 

“Proponents of just cause legislation claim it could contribute to far-reaching societal benefits, such as fostering greater economic equality by stabilizing household incomes — but these assertions are unfounded and do not hold up under scrutiny, as real-world evidence shows such policies often lead to the opposite outcomes,” said Cook. “The negatives far outweigh these abstract possibilities.”

“For businesses, this shift from at-will employment imposes burdensome requirements to document and prove every termination, leading to increased administrative costs, legal risks, and time-consuming processes that could result in frivolous lawsuits from disgruntled employees,” Cook added.

Small businesses, in particular, could be crippled by the need for extensive record-keeping and progressive discipline protocols, diverting resources from growth and customer service to compliance and defense against claims, he said.

Cook said that just cause legislation could “unleash a cascade of unintended consequences that ripple through the entire employment ecosystem,” disproportionately harming employers, high-performing employees and even those seeking jobs.

“For employers, the mandate to provide documented reasons, fair notice and severance for terminations would escalate costs and risks, potentially leading to more temporary or contract hiring to avoid long-term commitments, as businesses shy away from permanent roles that become harder to exit,” Cook said. “This creates an adversarial dynamic, where routine management decisions turn into potential legal battles, eroding trust and forcing employers to invest heavily in HR infrastructure just to mitigate lawsuits.”

Potential hires could face barriers too, he said, as employers might become more selective or hesitant to hire those with spotty records or needing extra support.

“In essence,” Cook said, “what starts as ‘protection’ could devolve into a system that stifles hiring, demoralizes strong performers and burdens businesses with inefficiencies, all while failing to truly elevate workplace standards.”

Cook said that the fundamental problems just cause protections create are universal, affecting businesses and workers similarly, regardless of scale.

“While differences exist between large and small communities, such as the diversity of industries or the availability of resources to handle compliance, these do not mitigate the core issues: increased litigation risks, administrative burdens and barriers to efficient workforce management that hinder economic growth everywhere,” he said. 

Where similar local practices already exist 

According to the city memo, the policy concepts that make up just cause labor protections are already in effect throughout the city of Ithaca.

Ithaca’s public sector workers — police officers, firefighters, Department of Public Works, and more — maintain a collective bargaining agreement with the city of Ithaca, according to the memo. Within each of these contracts, workers enjoy just cause worker protections, meaning they cannot be terminated from city employment without just cause and advance notice.

“Furthermore,” the memo states, “the City of Ithaca is required to adhere to a policy of ‘Progressive Discipline,’ or ‘the process of using increasingly severe steps or measures when an employee fails to correct a problem after being given a reasonable opportunity to do so.’”

Coleman pointed out that Tompkins County already has an Employee Resource Network (ERN) program that offers confidential support for member employees, including assistance from an in-house success coach as well as additional resources and training.  

“We want all of our folks to succeed,” Coleman said. “We would not have started the ERN program if we didn’t value the workers in this community.”

Administrative burdens on the city 

At the administrative level, the legislation could create a significant amount of new work for city employees, said City of Ithaca Attorney Victor Kessler at the Sept. 17 meeting in response to a question by Alderperson Clyde Lederman regarding city resources required to implement a just cause law.

“It depends on what the end scope of that legislation looks like,” Kessler replied. “A full-scale commission model — I don’t have capacity in my office now to run this kind of full-scale program. … If we were to adopt a kind of a full-scale commission model, there would be administrative components of that.”

Those components would include receiving the cases, scheduling meetings and running the meetings, he said. 

“On the legal side, you’d have to defend the legislation at the outset,” Kessler said. “You’d have to adjudicate the cases at the commission level. We’d be defending those determinations through article 78 appeals. And then, if there’s going to be some sort of proactive fine seeking or prosecution kind of component, we would be doing that, as well. So I think if you were to do a full-blown program, it would probably be — and this is an estimate, and it would, like I said, depend — I think you’re probably looking at two additional positions. There are things that you could do that would be less than that that would require less of a sort of staff-end lift.”

What’s coming next?

Common Council members agreed by the end of the most recent meeting that the best course of action is to continue with meetings of the working group with a high level of importance placed on engaging with the public and collecting community input. The council also voted to enlist the assistance of a city employee, who will schedule meetings and help write reports — something the group did not have before. 

Alderperson Patrick Kuehl says he supports the ideas behind just cause. 

“I just think it needs to happen in a way where we are supporting businesses and implementing good, solid HR practices that both protect workers and protect businesses,” he said. “I am a firm believer that when workers are happy and doing well, the business is doing well.” 

At the same time, Kuehl said he believes some forms that the legislation could take might ultimately prove too burdensome for the city’s residents.

“I believe the city continually puts more burdens on all people in this community,” Kuehl said. “We just need to be more conscious that the costs outweigh the benefits.”