Existing accrued and unused PTO, vacation and sick leave programs/balances do not offset the FFCRA Emergency Sick Leave requirement or allotment. The law clearly stipulates this leave is in addition to any current leave programs offered. Also, employers may not require employees to use other paid leave provided by the employer before the employee uses paid sick leave under the FFCRA Emergency Paid Sick Leave requirement.
Effective April 1, 2020, this Act allows an eligible employee to take paid sick leave because the employee is:
- Subject to a federal, state or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;
- Advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to COVID-19 concerns;
- Experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking medical diagnosis;
- Caring for an individual subject to a federal, state or local quarantine or isolation order or advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to COVID-19 concerns;
- Caring for the employee’s child if the child’s school or place of care is closed or the child’s care provider is unavailable due to public health emergency, or
- 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.
Eligibility
This Act requires employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide full-time employees (regardless of the employee’s duration of employment prior to leave) with 80 hours of paid sick leave at the employee’s regular rate (or two-thirds the employee’s regular rate to care for qualifying reasons 4, 5, or 6 listed above).
Cap on Paid Sick Leave Wages
This Act places limits on paid sick leave. Specifically, paid sick leave wages are limited to $511 per day up to $5,110 total per employee for their own use and to $200 per day up to $2,000 total to care for others and any other substantially similar condition.