News Release
« BackAnother Paid Leave Mandate Bill Introduced
Friday, December 04, 2009
House Education and Labor Chairman Rep. George Miller (D-CA) recently introduced new legislation to mandate paid leave—H.R. 3991, the Emergency Influenza Containment Act. This has been quickly drafted as emergency legislation in response to the H1N1 influenza outbreak.
This proposal is separate from the previously introduced Healthy Families Act (S. 1152/H.R. 2460), highlighted in the November 17 edition of Washington Wire.
While One Voice is still in the process of fully analyzing this new legislation, following are some of the bill’s major provisions:
• This bill would be effective 15 days after enactment and would sunset in two years. The Department of Labor would not be required to issue regulations to implement this legislation. However, the Department would be required to offer employers guidance to assist in compliance.
• Under this bill, all employees (including part time) of employers with 15 or more employees would be entitled to five days of paid sick leave during a 12-month period.
• Employees would be entitled to this paid leave if they have been directed, instructed or advised by their employer to leave work or not come in to work if they have demonstrated ‘symptoms of a contagious illness’ or have been in close contact with an individual (not necessarily a co-worker) who has symptoms of a contagious illness. While the legislation seeks to address the public health issues of H1N1, this legislation extends far beyond that particular influenza. Existing employer policies that advise employees to show up for work if they demonstrate symptoms of a contagious illness may become a trigger for employee paid-leave entitlements.
• The employer would be required to provide the amount of paid leave based on the employee’s regular rate of pay and the number of hours that the employee would be normally scheduled to work.
• Employees on paid sick leave would need to provide employers reasonable notice of their future absences after the first day of paid sick leave. However, employers would have the ability to terminate the paid sick leave following notification by the employer to the employee that the employer believes the employee no longer has symptoms of a contagious illness.
• Employees would not need to present medical certification of an illness to receive this leave.
• If employers already provide more than five days of leave to be specifically used for “paid sick leave” they would be exempted from this bill. It is unclear if employers who collectively bank paid time off would need to provide an additional five days. If employers don’t already provide five days of paid leave for sick-leave purposes, they will not be able to reduce employee benefits from existing policies or collective bargaining agreements.
• It is unclear if employers would be required to provide an additional five paid sick days if such leave is already exhausted by the employee.
• Employers who do not comply with this new legislation would be found to have failed to pay minimum wages and would be subject to penalties laid out in the Fair Labor Standards Act.
One Voice will continue to follow this legislation and other paid sick leave bills and let members know when action may be needed.
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