quarantine leave Archives - Levy Employment Law

By Alexandra Lapes and Tracey I. Levy

Employers in New York State, New York City, and New Jersey must be aware of continuing COVID leave obligations, particularly concerning paid sick leave, that remain in effect despite the expiration of the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which had provided a tax credit to offset the cost of paid time off in these circumstances.

New York State COVID-Related Leave is Ongoing

In addition to any other type of paid or unpaid time off that an employer may offer under its policies or to comply with legal requirements, New York State employers must continue to provide time off for COVID-related reasons, such as for employees who need to take leave because they are under a mandatory or precautionary order of quarantine or isolation due to COVID-19. New York’s separate COVID-19 sick leave has no expiration date, and as employers are slowly discovering, that means these obligations are long-lasting.

As we noted previously in a series of COVID-19 leave articles on our blog, for many employers COVID-19 sick leave must be paid, depending on the size and net income of the employer. By way of recap, employers’ obligations for COVID-19 sick leave are determined by the number of employees as of January 1, 2020, and provide for leave as follows:

If the employer has 10 or less employees and a net income less than $1 million – provide unpaid job-protected leave until the termination of the order of quarantine or isolation;
For all other employers with 99 or fewer employees – provide at least 5 days of paid job-protected leave and additional job-protected unpaid leave until the termination of the order of quarantine or isolation; and
If the employer has 100 or more employees – provide 14 days of paid job-protected leave during the order of quarantine or isolation.

New York State provides no reimbursement or subsidy to employers for the paid sick leave benefits required under the law. Notably, however, employees are not eligible for paid COVID-19 sick leave if they are able to work remotely.

NY Employees Can Take Paid COVID Leave Three Times in the Same Year

Employers in New York State are required to provide COVID-19 sick leave benefits as described above for up to three periods of covered leave per employee. However, the second and third periods of leave must be for a quarantine based on the employee’s own condition and not merely as a precaution due to exposure to others who tested position for COVID-19.

NYS STD/PFL Benefits Are Also Available for COVID-Related Reasons

New York State Short-Term Disability (STD) and Paid Family Leave (PFL) benefits are available simultaneously, with no waiting period, to employees of small and medium employers for the otherwise unpaid portion of a period of leave based on being personally subject to a government-issued quarantine or isolation order. In other words, employers that are not required to provide more than five days of paid COVID-19 sick leave should direct their employees to apply to the state’s STD/PFL programs for paid benefits for the duration of their quarantine or isolation period.

PFL also is available for an employee to care for a child for the duration of a quarantine or isolation period, and for up to 12 weeks of leave per year for care of a family member who is sick with COVID-19 where the family member’s sickness meets the PFL definition of a serious health condition.

NY Requires Additional Paid Time Off for Vaccinations

Employers in New York State are required to grant employees up to four hours of paid time off for each shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. Leave for vaccination must be paid at an employee’s regular rate of pay and is in addition to all other paid leaves provided by the employer. This particular mandate of paid leave for vaccination only applies to vaccinations after its March 12, 2021 effective date, and the law is set to expire by the end of 2022.

New York City added still another paid leave obligation, and it requires employers to provide paid time off for employees’ children to be vaccinated. Employees can use up to four hours of additional paid sick time, per child, per injection, for the vaccination itself and for care due to temporary side effects.

New Jersey Employers Have Ongoing COVID-Related Leave Requirements

New Jersey requires employers to provide paid leave under the state’s expanded New Jersey Earned Sick and Safe Leave Law (NJESSL), and this obligation is ongoing. In addition, COVID-19 leave benefits made available to employees through New Jersey’s Family Leave Act (NJFLA) and Temporary Disability Benefits Law (NJTDBL) program remain in effect indefinitely. While expanded in specific response to COVID-19, these amendments all turn more broadly on the declaration of a state of emergency by the governor due to an epidemic or public health emergency, and directives that an employee or the employee’s family member quarantine or isolate as a result of exposure to a communicable disease.

Notably, New Jersey expanded only the reasons why employees may qualify for NJESSL and the state’s leave benefit programs; it did not add any additional paid or unpaid leave entitlements. Also, and perhaps for this reason, employees who are able to work remotely while subject to a quarantine order may still be eligible for these New Jersey COVID-related leave benefits, as the New Jersey law does not expressly preclude those employees from taking NJESSL for COVID-related reasons.

NJESSL Extends to Time Getting Vaccinated

The New Jersey Department of Labor has declared that employees are entitled to use NJESSL to get the COVID-19 vaccine, including travel time and recovery from side effects. The Department created this memo for employees to provide to their employer regarding their additional rights to paid sick leave under NJESSL for COVID-19 vaccine leave, as vaccination is not listed as a reason for time off under the NJESSL law.

Takeaways

As the threat of COVID-19 persists for a third year and new variants emerge to infect more people and some people multiple times, employers in New York and New Jersey should note these ongoing pandemic-related paid leave provisions available to their employees.

By Tracey I. Levy

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued a mandatory poster and updated its initial guidance to answer many more of employers’ questions with regard to the application of the Emergency Paid Sick Leave law, which takes effect April 1, 2020. The poster must be posted in a conspicuous place on the employer’s premises or on a website for employee information, or emailed or direct mailed to all employees.

The DOL’s guidance includes the following key points, many of which we had referenced in our last HR Strategy article on the new federal and New York State emergency paid sick leave laws.

Exception for Small Businesses:

Employers with fewer than 50 employees can demonstrate that providing Emergency Paid Sick Leave or Emergency FMLEA will jeopardize the viability of their business as a going concern, and thereby claim an exemption from the laws’ requirements, if an authorized officer of the business determines that:

Providing the paid leave would cause the business’s expenses and financial obligations to exceed available revenues, such that the business would cease operating at a minimal capacity;
The absence of covered employees would entail a substantial risk to the financial health or operational capabilities of the business because of their specialized skills, knowledge of the business, or responsibilities; or
The business lacks sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified and available at the time and place needed to cover for the employee(s) requesting paid leave and the work the requesting employees would perform is needed for the small business to operate at minimal capacity.

It remains unclear what documentation an employer will need to maintain to meet this legal standard, so employers seeking the exemption may want to err on the side of saving any potentially relevant financial records, communications and notes of their deliberative process.

Counting the 500-Employee Threshold

The federal emergency paid leave laws apply only to employers with fewer than 500 employees. Only individuals employed in the United States (including all 50 states, the District of Columbia, or any Territory or possession of the U.S.) are included in that number. Multi-national entities with a relatively small U.S.-employee presence therefore are covered by the federal laws as to their U.S. employees, even if they have more than 500 employees globally. Also, full-time and part-time employees count equally toward meeting that threshold, as do employees on leave, temporary employees (even if they are employed through a temp agency), and day laborers supplied by a temporary agency. Only independent contractors are excluded from the headcount.

Documenting Leave is Requested for a Qualifying Reason

The DOL has referred employers to the Internal Revenue Service for forms, instructions and information on what documentation is required to support an employee’s request for leave and what documentation must be retained to support the employer’s claim of a tax credit. The IRS has not yet issued that guidance, but employers can check https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus for updates.

Generosity is Permissible, but Not Reimbursable

For higher-earning employees, employers may choose to pay them above the statutory cap for leave taken as Emergency Paid Sick Leave or Emergency FMLEA. However, employers cannot claim a tax credit for payments in excess of the statutory cap.

Employers may also permit (but may not require) employees to apply their regular accrued, paid leave time under the employer’s policies to supplement the amount received for Emergency Paid Sick Leave or Emergency FMLEA. For example, an employee who is receiving two-thirds of salary as Emergency Paid Sick Leave may request to use accrued, paid leave in one-third of a day increments to augment the federal law benefit. In this situation, as well, the employer tax credit is limited to payments up to the statutory amounts.

Intermittent Leave May Be an Option

Employees must take Emergency Paid Sick Leave in full-day increments. With that caveat, employers may permit an employee to use Emergency Paid Sick Leave and Emergency FMLEA on an intermittent basis (rather than in a single block of time) in select circumstances. Intermittent leave may be authorized for an employee who is caring for a child whose school or child care center has been closed due to COVID-19 precautions, regardless of whether the employee is reporting to the workplace or working remotely. If leave is being taken under any of the other five Emergency Paid Sick Leave categories, the guidelines provide that, unless the employee is working remotely, intermittent leave is not available.

Paid Leave is Not Required for Furloughed Employees or if the Workplace Has Been Closed

Employees are only eligible for paid leave if they are still working as of the date the leave is requested. If the entire worksite has been closed or the requesting employee has been laid off, even temporarily, and the employee is therefore not doing any work for the employer, even remotely, then the employer is not required to provide any amount of paid COVID-19-related leave under the federal laws. If an employer closes a worksite while an employee is already on covered paid leave, the employee must be paid for leave take only up to the date of closure.

Emergency FMLEA Counts as FMLA Time

For employers who are covered by the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, leave previously taken within the employer’s designated 12-month period counts against, and may thereby reduce, the leave available under Emergency FMLEA. Similarly, to the extent an employee takes leave in the next eight months for Emergency FMLEA, the leave taken will count against the employee’s 12-month FMLA leave entitlement.

Tag: quarantine leave

Wait, I Have to Pay Employees for Separate COVID Leave?