Two North Texas businesses filed a federal lawsuit against Dallas on Tuesday to stop the city's paid sick leave ordinance scheduled to take effect Thursday.

ESI/Employee Solutions, LP and Hagan Law Group LLC, both based in Collin County, filed the lawsuit and a request for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Interim City Attorney Chris Caso said attorneys are reviewing the lawsuit. He declined to comment further.

The ordinance, which labor organizations pushed, mandates paid sick leave for employees who work at least 80 hours a year in Dallas. The ordinance will require employers to allow their workers to accrue at least one hour for every 30 hours worked. Businesses with 15 or fewer employees can cap their workers' paid sick leave accruals at 48 hours a year instead of 64 hours.

The law excludes government agencies and independent contractors.

The two companies' attorney, Robert Henneke of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, argued that the ordinance is an overreach of the city's regulatory power over businesses that operate outside Dallas but have employees who work within the city limits. The lawsuit also asserts that the ordinance violates employers' constitutional rights and the state's minimum-wage act.

"The issue is government coming in and inserting itself in the relationship between the employers and employees, and mandating a one-size-fits-all requirement that interferes with the autonomy of employees to negotiate with their own businesses," Henneke said.

City Council member Adam Medrano (right) held a sign during a June 2018 news conference before a coalition of labor and faith groups and political activists delivered petitions to City Hall calling for a city ordinance mandating paid sick time to be placed on last November's ballot. The petition drive failed, but Medrano and his council colleagues passed an ordinance in April. (Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

Henneke said the new law also violates state law prohibiting cities from regulating wages. The constitutional rights, he wrote, include freedom of association, equal protection for non-unionized employers, and the right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures because of the city's subpoena power over business records if city officials receive a complaint from an employee.

Henneke said Plano-based ESI/Employee Solutions estimated the ordinance would apply to at least 300 employees and would cost its company more than $300,000 a year. Allen-based Hagan Law Group estimated it stood to lose $14,000 a year.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation threatened the lawsuit in a July 22 letter requesting that the city delay the ordinance's effective date until Dec. 1.

The Dallas Regional Chamber, the North Texas LGBT Chamber of Commerce and the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce on Monday also sent a joint letter to the City Council requesting a delay.

The letter said the groups believed the ordinance "will create inconsistent regulations, confusion, and unnecessary complications for employers and employees across the region and state."

"The one-size-fits-all approach mandated in the ordinance regarding the record-keeping and method of calculating paid sick leave is not practical for businesses," the letter said.

The groups also suggested that litigation involving nearly identical ordinances in Austin and San Antonio necessitated a delay.

Labor and community activists in a statement Tuesday denounced the lawsuit and urged the city to move forward with the new law.

Jose Garza, co-executive director of the Workers Defense Action Fund, said Dallas workers "urgently need" and expect the city to implement its ordinance by Aug. 1.

"This is a desperate 11th hour attempt to rob 300,000 Dallas residents of the right to take a day off work when they get sick," Garza said in a statement released Tuesday.

Mayor Eric Johnson, who is named in the suit, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. City Manager T.C. Broadnax, who is also named, declined to comment and referred to the city attorney.

But city officials so far have not given any public indication that they intend to pause or seriously reconsider the ordinance after the council passed it on a 10-4 vote in April.

Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates, who opposed the ordinance in April, said city staff indicated they will brief the council early next month on the law's implementation.