The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) imposes new requirements – and offers off-setting tax credits – for employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide paid leave for COVID-19-related reasons, as previously explained here, here and here. That left many employers with more than 500 employees assuming they were off the hook, but if they have employees in certain California cities, that may not be the case.
Continue Reading Larger California employers face growing local requirements to provide paid COVID-19-related sick leave and other accommodations
Leave Laws
Families First Coronavirus Response Act could mean massive changes for employers nationwide
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), a broad response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, has passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 363-40 and is expected to pass in the Senate and be signed into law by President Trump. The bill would impose significant obligations on covered employers, including requiring covered employers to provide employees who have a qualifying coronavirus-related need with up to 2 weeks of paid sick leave and up to 12 weeks of FMLA leave, most of which is partially paid. Although subject to change, the most recent iteration of the bill has the following key provisions:…
Continue Reading Families First Coronavirus Response Act could mean massive changes for employers nationwide
Attention, D.C. Employers: Paid Family Leave Notice to Employees Required by February 1, 2020
The District of Columbia Department of Employment Services (“DOES”) recently released a Paid Family Leave Employee Notice (“PFL Notice”) that D.C. employers must provide to employees by February 1, 2020. The PFL Notice, which is available here, contains information about the paid leave benefits that will be available under D.C.’s Universal Paid Leave Amendment…
D.C. UNIVERSAL PAID LEAVE UPDATE: PROPOSED BENEFITS REGULATIONS (COORDINATING PAID LEAVE POLICIES –THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS)
On August 9, 2019, the D.C. Office of Employment Services (DOES) took another step toward full implementation of D.C.’s Universal Paid Leave Amendment Act of 2016 (UPLA) by issuing proposed benefits regulations. In a recent post, we discussed generally the paid leave benefits eligible employees can receive from DOES under UPLA starting July…
DC Paid Family and Medical Leave Update: What Employers Need to Know Now
Under the District of Columbia’s Universal Paid Leave Amendment Act of 2016 (UPLA), paid family and medical leave will soon be a reality in DC. The DC paid leave program will be funded entirely by employer payroll tax contributions. [1] The first tax contributions from employers are due July 31, 2019 (unless that deadline is…
Now Is the Time to Review Your Paid Parental Leave Policies
Many employers offer paid parental leave policies to employees, affording new parents paid time off to care for a new child. Though some employers offer paid parental leave to both new mothers and fathers of equal length, many others offer substantially longer leaves to primary caregivers. Bifurcated parental leave policies for primary and non-primary caregivers…
New DOL Opinion Letter Clarifies Employer Requirements under the FMLA
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued an Opinion Letter to clarify that under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), employers cannot (1) delay the designation of FMLA-qualifying leave, even if the employee prefers the delay, or (2) designate more than 12 weeks (or 26 weeks if military caregiver leave) as FMLA leave.…
Supreme Court Passes on ADA Leave Question, For Now
We blogged in February about two Seventh Circuit cases pending before the Supreme Court that would have given the Court the opportunity to provide guidance as to whether, and if so to what extent, the ADA requires employers to provide disabled employees who have exhausted their FMLA and other employer-provided leave with additional leave as…
Maryland Issues Initial Guidance on Paid Sick Leave
We previously blogged about the requirements of Maryland’s new paid sick leave law, the Maryland Healthy Working Families Act. That law took effect on February 11, 2018, despite efforts by a number of lawmakers to delay it. As required by the law and in response to thousands of questions received, the Maryland Department of…
Supreme Court May Take Up Tricky ADA Leave Issue
Suppose that an employee with cancer has exhausted 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) but needs more time to recover from treatment before returning to work. Whether such an employee is entitled to additional unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is…