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{"id":2385,"date":"2020-03-19T09:41:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T14:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hkhlaw.org\/?p=2385"},"modified":"2020-03-19T09:41:03","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T14:41:03","slug":"what-does-the-families-first-coronavirus-response-act-mean-for-employers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hkhlaw.org\/what-does-the-families-first-coronavirus-response-act-mean-for-employers\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does the Families First Coronavirus Response Act Mean for Employers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On March 18, 2020, the Senate passed and President Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act which, among other things, contains certain leave provisions for employees impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0 As an employer, what are your obligations under the new law?\u00a0 There are two main provisions: leave to care for a minor child who is out of school due to COVID-19 and paid sick leave, and the statute says it will become effective no later than 15 days after it is signed by the President (April 2, based on a signature date of March 18).<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Applies to employers with fewer than 500 employees and employees who have worked at least 30 days for the employer.<\/li>\n<li>Allows leave of up to 12 weeks for an employee who is \u201cunable to work (or telework) due to the need for leave to care for a son or daughter under 18 years of age of such employee if the school or place of care has been closed, or the child care provider of such son or daughter is unavailable, due to a public health emergency [defined as \u201can emergency with respect to COVID-19, declared by a Federal, State, or local authority\u201d].<\/li>\n<li>The first 10 days of the leave can be unpaid. The employer <em>cannot require<\/em> the employee to use available paid leave during this 10-day period.<\/li>\n<li>After the first 10 days of leave, the leave is <em>paid<\/em>, at a rate of no less than 2\/3 of the employee\u2019s regular rate for the number of hours the employee normally would have been scheduled to work. The amount of paid leave is limited to $200 per day and $10,000 total.<\/li>\n<li>With certain limited exceptions, the Emergency Family and Medical Leave is job-protected, so the employer must restore the employee to his\/her position upon return from leave. This is similar to the \u201cregular\u201d (non-emergency) FMLA\u2019s requirements.<\/li>\n<li>Employers can opt out of providing the leave described in the Act to employees who are health care providers or first responders.<\/li>\n<li>The Act provides the Secretary of Labor with the authority to exempt health care providers and employers with fewer than 50 employees (if compliance would jeopardize the business) from the leave requirements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Emergency Paid Sick Leave<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Applies to employers with fewer than 500 employees. There is no requirement that the employee have worked for the employer for any specified period of time to trigger eligibility.<\/li>\n<li>Requires covered employers to provide paid sick leave if the employee is unable to work because:\n<ul>\n<li>the employee is subject to a Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;<\/li>\n<li>the employee has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19;<\/li>\n<li>the employee is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis;<\/li>\n<li>the employee is caring for an individual who (a) is subject to a Federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19, or (b) has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19;<\/li>\n<li>the employee is caring for a son or daughter of such employee if the place of care of the son or daughter has been closed, or the child care provider of such son or daughter is unavailable, due to COVID-19 precautions; or<\/li>\n<li>the employee is experiencing any other substantially similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Full-time employees are eligible for 80 hours of paid sick leave under the Act. Part-time employees are eligible for the number of hours they are normally scheduled to work in a 2-week period.<\/li>\n<li>The dollar amount of paid leave is capped at $511 per day and $5110 in total for the first 3 reasons listed above, and $200 per day and $2000 in total for the next 3 reasons listed above.<\/li>\n<li>If employers provide more generous paid sick leave, either due to their own policies, a collective bargaining agreement, or an applicable local law, they should follow the more generous leave policy\/requirement instead of that dictated by the new statute. Additionally, if employers, in light of the pandemic, choose to provide more generous sick leave than that referenced in the Act, they are permitted to do so.<\/li>\n<li>Employers can opt out of providing the leave described in the Act to employees who are health care providers or first responders.<\/li>\n<li>The Act provides the Secretary of Labor with the authority to exempt health care providers and employers with fewer than 50 employees (if compliance would jeopardize the business) from the leave requirements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Tax Credits and Further Relief Measures<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Act provides tax credits for employers who are required to and do provide paid leave pursuant to the terms of the statute.<\/li>\n<li>Senators have made clear that this Act is not the end of the relief efforts they will attempt to pass, so expect additional news \u2013 potentially expanding the provisions already in place \u2013 in the near future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Notice Posting Requirement<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Act requires employers to post a notice, in a conspicuous place where other notices are normally posted, notifying employees of the provisions of the Act.<\/li>\n<li>Within the next week, the Secretary of Labor will publish a model notice, which we encourage employers to use in lieu of creating their own publication.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In these unprecedented times, the attorneys and staff of HKH are still working for you.\u00a0 If you have questions about the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, or any other questions pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic\u2019s impact on your workplace and employees, please contact your HKH attorney for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On March 18, 2020, the Senate passed and President Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act which, among other things, contains certain leave provisions for employees impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0 As an employer, what are your obligations under the new law?\u00a0 There are two main provisions: leave to care for a minor child [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkhlaw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkhlaw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkhlaw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkhlaw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkhlaw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hkhlaw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkhlaw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkhlaw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkhlaw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}