Massachusetts House Advances Eight Labor and Safety Bills, Enacts Sick-Leave Measure

BOSTON — March 19, 2026 — The Massachusetts House advanced eight labor and public-safety bills to a third reading in a brief informal session March 19. All actions were taken by unanimous voice vote with no roll-call tallies recorded. The package ordered to third reading includes Senate Bill 2960, clarifying call firefighter rights; House Bill 1329, protecting recently widowed spouses from foreclosure; House Bill 2074, covering electronic wage-card workers; House Bill 2124, shielding hospital employees from wage theft; House Bill 2145, setting a minimum wage for airline catering workers; House Bill 5125, limiting prison labor; and House Bill 3169, encouraging nonprofit donations. The House also enacted House Bill 4962, establishing a sick-leave bank for Sally Desrosiers, an employee of the Department of Correction, and engrossed three local home-rule bills covering firefighter and police employment in Conway and a civil service age waiver in Arlington. Five joint-committee reporting deadlines were extended, with the furthest — for the committees on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities and on Transportation — running to July 31, 2026.