Missouri workers will lose new sick leave protections approved by voters last fall, after Republican lawmakers on Wednesday repealed a ballot measure that garnered widespread public support.

The Senate voted 22-11 to roll back Proposition A, which nearly 58% of voters supported in November. GOP senators employed an extraordinary procedural maneuver to break a Democratic filibuster and force a vote ahead of the end of the legislature’s annual session on Friday.

Proposition A required most employers to provide paid sick time off to workers beginning May 1. The measure passed by the General Assembly guts those provisions amid loud opposition from business groups to the voter-approved ballot measure.

The ballot measure also raised the state’s minimum wage. The legislation passed on Wednesday leaves a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour next year in place but repeals future increases based on inflation.

Since Proposition A changed state law but not the state constitution, lawmakers have the authority to rewrite the measure. But the decision to roll back a popular ballot measure comes as Missouri Republicans have sought to curtail direct democracy in the state over the past several years as voters have approved seemingly progressive policies at the ballot box, including restoring the right to abortion.

“I think being on the side of the voters is the right thing to do,” Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat, said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.

Top Republicans cast Proposition A as a burden for the state’s business community. The Missouri Chamber of Commerce has said rewriting the sick leave provisions would give employers flexibility to “tailor workplace policies” to the meet the needs of their workforce.

Under Proposition A, employers that make at least $500,000 a year in sales must provide at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. How much sick leave employers must provide depends on the number of employees the business has.

“The biggest piece that’s a problem with Proposition A are the benefits that go along with it,” Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe said in March. “I’ve heard from employers in Missouri, again, both large and very small, about the problems that that could produce.”

In April, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the Proposition A election results. A decision signed by six of the court’s seven judges, found that the results for Proposition A were valid, rejecting a challenge brought by a coalition of Missouri business advocacy groups who claimed the measure had a series of irregularities that cast doubt on the fairness of the election.

While the decision handed Proposition A supporters a legal victory, the opinion intensified efforts among lawmakers to weaken the law. That opposition came to a head Wednesday on the Senate floor.

Democrats had been filibustering legislation to roll back the ballot measure’s sick leave protections during on-and-off debate this spring. Late Wednesday afternoon, Republican senators voted to “move the previous question,” a procedural method to end the filibuster.

The vote came after the Senate had just voted to advance a constitutional amendment to reimpose a ban on abortion.

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