In follow-up to our last post on CA Supplemental COVID Sick Leave (SEE HERE), this is a reminder that such leave is mandatory for all employers with more than 25 employees. As we discussed in our last post, the reasons for the leave overlap with the FFCRA and as a result, employers with between 25 and 500 employees may want to look into “voluntarily” participating in the FFCRA so that they can get tax credits for providing the sick leave which California is now mandating. At worst, the federal government will not allow the tax credits to be taken, which will leave companies no worse off than they are under the CA law which provides no tax credits.
Also, the notice, which must be posted “in a conspicuous place,” can be found here: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/2021-COVID-19-Supplemental-Paid-Sick-Leave.pdf. If an employer’s covered employees do not frequent a workplace, the employer may satisfy the notice requirement by disseminating notice through electronic means.
And lastly, the DIR has put up a new FAQ to help provide answers to some of the most burning employer questions: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/COVID19Resources/FAQ-for-SPSL-2021.html.
To date, we are not aware of any lawsuits being filed to prevent the retroactive nature of this leave law. For now, once you post the notice, its up to your employees who were out with COVID to request retro COVID paid sick leave. If those requests come in, check with The Employers' Council before you start calculating payment so we can let you know if the court has stopped the retroactive portion of the law or not by that point.