Earlier this year, the California Legislature passed the Healthy Workplace, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (HWHFA) which requires all employers, regardless of size, to provide paid sick leave to employees. This new law imposes specific and detailed obligations on employers in California. While at first glance these obligations appear confusing and even contradictory, thankfully, the California Labor Commissioner recently issued FAQs providing some clarification on how employers can comply with this new law. Employers should be aware of the obligations imposed by the HWHFA as well as the Labor Commissioner’s interpretation of the new law.
Starting January 1, 2015, employers must display a poster created by the Labor Commissioner informing employees of their rights under the HWHFA. A copy of this poster can be found at www.dir.ca.gov. Employers must also provide updated new hire notices under Labor Code § 2810.5 which include an explanation of employees’ rights to use and accrue paid sick leave. A template of the updated new hire notice was created by the Labor Commissioner earlier this month and is also available at www.dir.ca.gov.
While the notice requirements begin January 1, employees’ right to use and accrue sick leave under the law does not begin until July 1, 2015. Starting July 1, 2015, all employees, whether full-time, part-time, temporary or exempt, are entitled to paid sick leave as long as they work 30 or more days in California within one year. Even employers located outside of California must provide paid sick leave in compliance with the HWHFA to any employee who works at least 30 days in California.
Employers can comply with HWHFA by providing paid sick leave under one of two methods – an accrual method or an “upfront” method. Under the accrual method, employees must, at minimum, accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Accrued sick leave must carry over year to year, but employers can cap the accrual at no less than 48 hours (six days). While employees are entitled to accrue up to 48 hours of paid sick leave, an employer can limit an employee’s use of paid sick leave to 24 hours (three days) in any one year.
Alternatively, under the “upfront” method, employers must provide employees with a lump sum of no less than 24 hours (three days) of paid sick leave at the beginning of each year. Under this option, the full 24 hours of leave must be available at the beginning of each year for each employee to use.
Employees must be allowed to use paid sick leave for the diagnosis, care, treatment or preventative care of a health condition of the employee or the employee’s family member. Family member specifically includes children, parents, spouses, registered domestic partners, grandparents, grandchildren and siblings. Paid sick leave can also be used for leave related to domestic violence, sexual violence and/or stalking. Moreover, employees are entitled to begin using paid sick leave on their 90th day of employment and must be allowed to take leave in increments of two hours or less.
Finally, each pay period, employers must provide written notice to employees of the amount of paid sick leave available either on employees’ itemized wage statements or in a separate writing provided on the designated pay date. Employers must keep records of employees’ hours worked and paid sick days accrued and used for at least three years.
There is some good news for employers under the new HWHFA. First, unlike vacation time or paid time off, employers do not need to issue payment for paid sick leave to employees upon termination of employment. Also, employers who already provide paid time off are not necessarily required to provide additional paid sick leave. If an employer’s paid leave policy complies with the requirements of the HWHFA, no additional sick leave policy is required.
Employers should begin reviewing their paid leave policies to determine if they comply with HWHFA – specifically whether they provide for all employees to accrue at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked or provide a full 24 hours of leave each year which can be used for the same purposes as provided in the HWHFA. Employers need to bring their leave policies into compliance with the HWHFA no later than July 1, 2015.
