Online Signature Legitimacy for Sick Leave Policy in United States

How to eSign a document: online signature legitimacy for Sick Leave Policy in United States

welcome to today's program titled navigating new york state and new york city paid sick leave developments at this time all participants are in a listen only mode for those of you who are logged into the web presentation you are encouraged to submit questions throughout the conference by typing them into the q a box on the right hand side of your screen the speakers will address as many questions as they can throughout the presentation and if time allows they will field additional questions at the end of the presentation for those interested in obtaining cle credits for this webinar an attendance verification code will be read during the presentation that will be required on the cle attendance affirmation form please write this code down as it will not be reread and it is required for cle credit copies of the webinar recording and materials along with the cle attendance form will be distributed to attendees in the days following the program at this time i would like to turn it over to our first speaker bill perkins bill please go ahead thanks morgan and welcome to everyone to the first installment of a special multi-part webinar series on state and local paid sick leave laws it's our intent to provide you with the wherewithal to best navigate the ever increasing frequently changing nuanced world of paid sick leave administration i'm bill perkins and i'm here with my colleagues marlon duro oh can we change the slide uh and josh seidman today we're focusing on new york law but to ensure that we have the necessary launch pad josh is going to set the stage with a quick overview of paid sick leave laws on a nationwide basis josh all right thanks so much phil good morning good afternoon to everyone who's dialed in thank you so much for joining us you know as bill mentioned before we get into the new york state and new york city paid sickly specifics of which there there's quite a bit to go over it's worth just taking a step back for a few minutes and understanding what the nation's current sick leave landscape looks like because it has undergone a lot of changes in 2020 largely due to the coronavirus pandemic next slide please as you can see on this slide we have a total of 65 paid sick leave mandates around the country that has paid sick leave as well as mandatory paid time off mandates there are two at the federal level both with pretty significant limitations there's executive order 13706 that impacts certain federal contractors that's been around since the obama administration uh there's also the federal families first coronavirus response act that went into effect earlier this year in response to covid19 and includes an emergency paid sick leave mandate for employees who work for employers of sort of a certain size under 500 total employees and then we get to the state and municipal levels and you can see there are 15 states plus washington dc as well as 32 municipalities for a total of 48 jurisdictions that have mandatory basically for paid time off mandates um you know now lawyers you know typically are not very good at math and our math here if you look at the left side versus the right side of this this graphic it doesn't quite add up but i'll explain why that is the these 65 total mandates we included the term mandates here because a number of locations have multiple paid sick leaves mandates or laws some of them have multiple mandates built within the same law that can be like the new colorado law that was passed back in july philadelphia washington dc baked in their new coronavirus emergency paid sick leave mandates within the the existing regular paid sick leave laws that they've had on the books for a number of years and then a number of other locations including california washington uh michigan here in new york as bill will mention in a couple of minutes uh colorado washington state nevada and a handful of municipalities have multiple paid sick leave laws on the books so that's how we get up to the total of 65 mandates it's a pretty uh impressive number and and pretty frustrating number for companies with multi-state nationwide operations because if you rewind you know six or so years back to 2014 there were less than 10 total laws around the country in this space so really rapidly growing not just due to coronavirus although that again has resulted in a wave of new laws including numbers 27 to 32 at the bottom of this municipality section do are all in response to coronavirus and supplemental basically mandates in those local california jurisdictions this list does not include paid family medical leave laws or paid family leave state disability insurance laws those are all sort of a separate separate animal separate beasts um what you can see also and worth noting in that state session there are two statewide pto laws right separate from state vacation time laws that some of you might be familiar with these pto laws very similar to sick leave in in the terms of uh the benefits of accruing based on hours work the big difference though is that the the benefits can be used for any reason the nevada law is currently in effect the the main pto law starts in just about six weeks from now on january first that's also when the the non-coveted parts of the colorado paid sick leave law kick in as well as several important requirements under the new york state new york city laws that we'll be getting to finally two just last points on this slide number one we have austin san antonio and dallas highlighted in red because while there are paid sick leave laws technically on the books in those locations they are not currently in effect they've all been enjoined as part of three separate lawsuits and it is likely that they will not be going into effect anytime soon if ever but we included them on here for now for purposes of being complete and then lastly westchester county new york which we'll be uh be discussing in a bit of detail towards the end of this presentation has two separate laws a sick time law and a separate safe time law most of the other laws in this on this slide include sick and safe time under a single bucket of leave westchester county does it differently we'll discuss the status of those two laws in a little while and with that next slide please with that i'm going to turn it over to bill to bring us down to the new york state level and give us an overview of leave laws at the empire state great thanks josh can we go to the next slide great i don't have to tell anyone on this call that new york both new york city and new york state has a gaggle of laws that we have to deal with most recently as of september new york state paid sick leave law people started to accrue time although that will not be as we'll talk about later will not be available until january new york city esta law has been in effect for a while and and as we'll talk about in a bit that will uh as a result of the amendments now will conform for the most part with the state law we also have the new york statewide covid emergency leave law which provides up to a maximum of 14 days leave paid leave for a quarantine situation we have the new york paid family leave law which currently is 10 weeks but going to 12 weeks of paid leave next year new york disability benefits the infamous 172 a week payment uh is still alive and well we also have new york workers comp law that that can come into being is a result of a code situation possibly the new york unemployment law uh obviously pays employees time with regard to unemployment and in addition uh besides all these laws we we have others we have crime victim witness leave laws we have blood donation leave law bone marrow leave domestic violence and sexual assault leave voting leave and emergency responder leave and last but not least family military leave so there's a lot of laws to leave loss to keep in mind in terms of new york and and this you know presents sort of a an issue with where some of these laws work together and some of them work by themselves so with that let's go back to uh to josh thanks so much bill um we're now going to go into uh really the meat of today's presentation and why i imagine the majority of you are dialed in and that's to take a close look at an examination of the new york state new york city paid sick leave laws both of which have had some some real big developments um over the last month or two um our colleague marlon burrow who i'm going to pass it over to now is going to get us started on this topic and lots to digest here so hope you're all excited and ready thank you josh um so as josh mentioned we're going to start out by talking about the new york state paid sick leave law this is the not non-covet 19 paid sick leave law it was passed in april of this year and went into effect on september 30th of this year um in terms of employer coverage and employee eligibility the law is pretty broad in terms of who it covers um because the law adds to the new york labor law new york labor laws definition of employer applies and it covers basically all private sector employers although the law does not have an express standard for employee eligibility um it also adopts the new york labor laws very broad definition of employee as you can slide in addition the new york state website provides some guidance on employee eligibility and it basically says that all private sector employees in new york state are covered regardless of industry occupation part-time status and overtime exempt status when looking at eligibility it's important to also look at collective bargaining agreement treatment by the law for those of you who have union workforces um in terms so as you can see on the slide the law only addresses collective bargaining agreements that are entered into on or after september 30th 2020 which is when the law went into effect um in those instances the um employers are not required to provide sickle as described in the law so long as those agreements provide for comparable benefits such as a time off for employees and it has to specifically acknowledge the provisions of labor law 196 b which is the paid sick wave law uh the new york state paid sick leave law website provides some guidance um on what comparable benefits are it says that for purposes of collective bargaining agreements the department of labor considered considers leave time which has fewer restrictions on its use to be comparable to that required by the law regardless of what that leave is called so regard regardless of if the leave is called vacation or pto or sick leave now although that does provide a little bit of guidance it doesn't um specify what kind of restrictions they're talking about it's unclear if the employer also has to provide the same increments of use or notice or documentation or other requirements that match the law or if those could be different but what is clear that is that to satisfy the requirement of the collective bargaining agreement um any agreement entered on or after september 30 2020 has to specifically reference labor law section 196b now um in terms of collective bargaining agreements that were in effect prior to september 30th it's not completely clear on how to handle those because the law does not address it and the guidance does not explicitly address it either however while not without some risk it's likely that the new york state paid sick leave law does not apply to those collective bargaining agreements until they have expired been renewed or renegotiated this is a very common set up under other paid sick leave laws as you saw here on this collective bargaining piece there's a number of open questions and josh will discuss open questions later in the presentation but one thing to keep in mind here is that although the law has gone into effect we are still awaiting regulations that we're hoping might clarify this as well as some other open great areas in the law and with that we'll move on to the next slide and look at these provisions for new york city the new york city earned safe and sick time act has been around in one form or another since april of 2014 it was amended in 2018 to add the safe time provisions and most recently was amended in september with those amendments going in effect on september 30th in order to get it to line to the new york state law um although this you know although the amendments are in effect we're still waiting for amended regulations here as well in terms of employer eligibility and employer coverage those are also really broad standards and are basically identical to that of new york state this is important because in terms of employee eligibility new york city removed the requirement that an employee work for at least 80 hours in new york city so the amendments completely removed that requirement and now basically all private sector employees and employers are covered in of treatment collective bargaining agreements since the new york city law has been around since 2014 there's nothing in the amendments regarding cbas that were entered into prior to september of this year however for um it does address collective bargaining agreements and similar to the new york state law it provides that the provisions of the new york city earned safe and sick time act have to expressly be waived in the cba and the cba has to provide a comparable benefit to employees the guidance provides a little bit of information of what a comparable benefit is it says it could be vacation time personal time safe and sick time holiday and sunday time pay at premium rates or some combination of these benefits however just like new york state it leads open the question of um you know if employers have to comply with the other requirements of the law such as notice and documentation and increments of use which we're going to get into a little later in the presentation next slide please now that we got eligibility um and coverage standards out of the way we're going to look into more detail at all the different requirements of these laws so starting with new york state again the law has an accrual rate that's pretty common amongst paid sick leave law so employees can accrue leave at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked and the lee employees begin to accrue um the start of employment for employees who were existing employees prior to the effective date of the law prior to september 30th 2020 those employees would have had to begin accruing leave as of september 30th as you'll see on the slide the accrual and usage caps vary based on employer size specific employers with four or fewer employees in a calendar year generally have to provide 40 hours of unpaid sick leave in each calendar year there's an exception here for employers that do have for your employees but that they have a net income of greater than 1 million in the previous tax year those employers along with employers that have between 5 and 99 employees in a calendar year have to provide 40 hours of paid sick leave per year and finally employers with a hundred or more employees in any calendar year have to provide employees with up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year in terms of usage employers with fewer than 100 employees can cap usage to 40 hours and those with more than 100 employees can cap it at 56 hours per year one important thing here is the usage waiting period so um although cruel started at the end of september employees are not entitled to use sick leave until january 1st 2021 however starting on january 1st there is no usage waiting period so that means all employees regardless of whether their new hires or existing employees can use sick leave as it accrues now this is a big deal because it's uncommon across paid sick leave laws in fact as of right now only colorado appears to have the same no waiting period on use for new hires this is a particularly big deal for employers that have a lot of turnover during the first year of employment and who rely on large seasonal or temporary employee populations because employees would have to would be entitled to use leave as they accrue it rather than um you know wait a certain uh period of time before they can do so in terms of year end carryover um as you see there's no carryover cap under the new york state law um we are still waiting as i mentioned further regulations which may clarify this however new york state released faqs that suggest that there is no pap um so um as of right now sick leave that is unused by an employee over the course of the year must be carried over to the next calendar year now this may result in an employee maintaining a leave balance that's in excess of the amount that they are permitted to use in a calendar year which can lead to a few complications first it could lead to confusion amongst employees who have so-called paid sick leave banks that are greater than what they're entitled to use further this can lead to finished burdens on employers especially in new york city because of the available balance notice requirement which will we'll discuss a little later on finally in terms of front loading um flow employers who wish to uh provide employees with a lump sum grant of time rather than permit accrual can do so however um it's unclear if one of the the biggest advantages of front loading which in most places would be to get rid of carryover obligations it's unclear if the front loading in new york state will get rid of carryover obligations now this is not completely unique to new york um in fact we don't have to look very far for an example of a place that does this new jersey does the same thing where even if you front load the time um you would still have to permit carryover again we're waiting on the regulations to clarify this but as of right now it does not appear that front loading would get rid of carryover next slide please now looking at new york city as you'll see the cruel rate and start of accrual are the same as new york one hour for every 30 hours work um starting at the start of employment and then again accrual cap and usage cap um varies depending on the employer size um so it's either 40 or 56 hours per year so one thing about the new york state cap is that um the law there is not clear about whether um the employer size is based on the number of employees in the state or employers anywhere similarly in new york city it's not too clear if um you know you're supposed to count only the employees in the city or in the state or anywhere there is some guidance that suggests that in new york city you may only have to count new york city employees however that's not fully clear in usage waiting period just like in new york there's no usage waiting period and this is very significant in new york city because there used to be a 120 day waiting period so for some seasonal employees in new york city they may have never had the chance to use any leave that they accrued due to this usage waiting period so now that new york city got rid of that all those employees may be entitled to leave when they were not entitled to that previously in the year and carryover there's some uncertainty regarding that topic although the law itself provides that employers have to permit carryover or 40 of 50 40 or 56 hours depending on the employer size uncertainty stems from two places uh first there is guidance that was released by new york city that seems to suggest that there will not be a year-end carryover cap but most importantly there is also confusion stemming from the new york state paid sick leave law as you'll see on the left-hand side of all the new york city slides it says follow new york state if more generous so to the extent that new york state does not have a carryover cap new york city employers have to follow that standard and finally in terms of front loading um there was a significant amendment here which you'll see in red font although front loading is likely permitted it's unclear front loading gets rid of an employer's carry-over obligations under the prior standards of the new york city law it did however now because of the new york state law that is unclear and it's likely that it does not get rid of carryover obligations um so in terms of reasons for use i know we've talked about a few different places where new york state was um unique in um in its standards however when it comes to reasons for use the reasons for use under the new york state law are pretty common under most paid sick leave laws it's basically for the employee or family member's illness injury or health condition or for the employer covered family members diagnosis treatment or preventative care um and for certain safe time reasons due to the employee or family member being a victim of domestic violence a family offense a sexual offense stalking or human trafficking so employees can use the leave for certain absences relating to them being a victim of those crimes so nothing really unusual there now moving on to new york city on the next side um you'll see that um they you know reasons one two and four pretty much match the reasons for use for new york you'll also notice that there's nothing in red font here which means that there were no amendments um to this provision um however you'll see that although reasons one two and four are like that of new york state there's an additional reason for use here and although if this webinar was happening a year ago it wouldn't be too big of a deal given that we're in 2020 and with new york city schools being closed today this reason becomes increasingly important these can use leave foreclosures of a piece of business or school or child care provider due to a public health emergency now during these last two slides i've been talking about cover family members so who is considered a cover family member under these laws next slide please if we look at the new york state covered family numbers again there's nothing too unusual here these are pretty typical of most basically laws covered family member includes a child a spouse domestic partner parent sibling grandchild grandparent and the child or parent of an employee's spouse or domestic partner and if we look at new york city on the slide um you'll see that the first eight covered family members are identical to those under new york state law however and importantly new york city has two additional family members which are kind of catch-all family members which have been increasingly popular um in recent paid sick leave us um these are very broad and include any individual related to blood to them by blood to the employee and any other individual whose close association with employee is equivalent of a family relationship these reasons are not new they were there under the uh you know before the amendments took place but they're worthy of noting because they are very broad and they're in addition to what new york state requires and with that i will pass it on to josh great thank you morgan uh thank you marlon excuse me thanks morgan for transferring the slide um so just a response to a couple of questions that have come in very quickly before i keep going here so number one we had a really good question that came in about companies that operate both in new york city and have a separate location in upstate new york what sort of makes sense in terms of handling um you know compliance with the two laws and as marlon just went over you know there are while the two laws are aligned in a lot of ways there are some aspects and some areas where where new york city is more generous than the new york state law reasons for use and and covered family members are two great examples that marlon just went over uh increments of use which i'll be discussing in a couple of seconds here is another one so that that will sort of dictate you know for the company does it make sense to have a single program um so you only have to to deal with one one policy or you know do you want to not give a windfall to some workers outside of the city that's sort of the the big factor there to think through um you know another just topic right it is possible certainly for employers depending on how their programs are are set up to you know have a single sort of program that follows the the most generous parts of new york city in new york state and that would be giving sort of a single 56-hour uh bucket as opposed to the total of of 112 but you have to make sure policies are are set up properly the program is set up properly and all of that that's another question that just came in um thank you thank you everyone for the questions please please do keep them coming and we'll do our best to get as many as possible um okay so going back to the slide in front of us now here the um so everything marlon just went over hugely important for paid sick leave purposes right in terms of you know am i eligible as a worker am i covered as an employer what what type of what amount of sick leave do i have to give to workers accrual and usage and carry over what are the reasons that it can be used for those are the things that companies rightly so focus on when they think about paid sick leave laws but there's a whole other category of topics these other substantive technical points some of which are listed on this slide and we'll be getting into that can impact your policy that can impact how you administer that policy and that can just be totally unrelated to the policy but things that you still have to comply with sort of behind the scenes so we'll get into all of that now as we work through the rest of these details so this slide we've got increments of use notice to the employer documentation and one of my my favorite topics using existing policies or non-sick policies like pto personal days what have you for compliance so under new york state the increment of youth standard you can see here is a reasonable minimum increment for the use of sick leave that doesn't exceed four hours so in practice what does that mean well outside of new york city that means that it's likely okay for the company to say four hour initial increment followed by an eight hour you know so four then eight and twelve you know that's sort of the the setup you know basically half day increments um with one potential wrinkle and it's that term reasonable at the beginning of that little section on the slide a lot of laws have that language reasonable minimum increment most of them don't give any guidance on what it means and new york state is in that group but new york city does give some guidance on that term and what new york city's administrative guidance says is for new hires who are who are accruing sick leave again at that 1 30 rate that marlon went over it's going to take them a little bit of time to to reach four hours and it's not reasonable to require them to to use time in four hours when they're first hired if they've never had the opportunity to earn the four hours yet so in those instances the city basically suggests you need to go with a smaller increment it's not clear if new york city will will follow the same setup but it is worth keeping in mind as you're kind of banning around some possible compliance scenarios with that standard notice that the employer is next a very vague standard here in the in new york state employer must provide leave for the permitted purposes upon oral or written request of the employee a few things to unpack there number one uh the the notice can either be oral or written doesn't have to be in writing doesn't have to be through some type of form although a lot of companies certainly have that built in new york state now says oral or written so so that's important for companies to be aware of separately the new york state standard unlike a lot of other paid sick leave laws including those in new york city in new jersey connecticut and elsewhere doesn't have different notice standards for foreseeable versus unforeseeable absences you know a lot of and we'll see what new york city says on the next slide here but but when new york state just sort of keeps it open and makes it challenging for companies who have operations in new york city to to know whether they can still enforce the city's foreseeable and unforeseeable notice to the company standards um so that's another sort of open question that we're hoping for some additional guidance from the state maybe we'll be addressing regulations uh along those same lines documentation right new york state has no standard right it's silent both in terms of the law the faqs and the website that's been has been published about whether an employer can require the employee to submit reasonable documentation justifying that they use sick leave for one of those covered reasons that marlon went over most paid sick leave laws will have some type of standard that says after the worker has been out for x number of days two three four days you know consecutively you can require reasonable documentation they give you insights into what is considered reasonable documentation depending on the absence new york state doesn't do any of that so right now another kind of open question in new york city is what can we do in terms of administering the documentation standards in new york city and we'll see again what those look like on the next slide and then finally the bottom category here is using existing policies or non-sick paid time-off programs for sick leave law compliance in new york city and new york state essentially the standard says you're allowed to do that you don't have to use a sickly policy you can use pto or personal days what have you as long as that policy meets or exceeds the amount of leave that you're required to provide satisfies the accrual and carryover and use requirements of the new york state law i highly highlighted the term use requirements for a particular reason it's because it's unclear exactly how broad that that term is you know could use requirements mean increments of use certainly sounds reasonable right could it mean notice to the company you know in advance of using the time or you know for use of the sick leave also sounds reasonable you know pay out upon separation or no retaliation for use the covered reasons need to be you know listed and address family members right there's a lot that could be covered under that term that umbrella term of use requirements so when you're thinking through am i going to be using these other you know non-sick paid time off programs for sick leave law compliance in new york state understanding and thinking through that use requirements term becomes really important next slide please all right so now we're in in new york city's world same topics increments of use the besides the new higher wrinkle that i mentioned on the last slide that guidance in terms of reasonable uh what that to that term means in new york city we also have an important distinction which comes from the new york city uh rules which as marlon mentioned have not yet been updated based on the september 30th amended ordinance but what the rules currently say is that post that initial increment right after that first four hour increment the employer can set a maximum increment of 30 minutes so instead of going four then eight and 12 hours it would go four then four and a half and five and five and a half and so on um in new york city so that's a big important distinction there from the city versus the state notice to the employer and documentation you can see the highlights of the standards here you know notice to the company as i mentioned new york city has both foreseeable and unforeseeable absences and it's unclear exactly how those standards are going to work in light of this this new new york state law and its standard which is give the time you know immediately upon oral or written request from the employee can that seven days advance notice for foreseeable absences in new york city still stand um so that's that one one sort of open topic documentation right is sort of another one you can see here after an absence of more than three consecutive work days the employer is allowed in new york city to require reasonable documentation the city explains what's considered reasonable documentation they even go as far as saying you know within seven days of the workers return to work the employer can require that the documentation be submitted but all of that comes under question in light of the new york state law where arguably the state being silent is more generous on this topic than what the city says because the state doesn't expressly allow these more than three you know the employer to require the documentation after more than three consecutive days so that becomes an open topic um one update in new york city uh based on the recent amendments uh back on september 30th is that they said you know for companies that are following this documentation standard the employer is responsible for the cost of the employee obtaining that documentation to the extent it isn't covered by their insurance or other benefit plan each of those three topics increments of use notice to the company and documentation are required to be in writing in a written policy under the new york city regulations so just important points there new york city as we'll see in a few slides has a really robust written policy requirement um finally just in terms of using existing policies for compliance in new york city again that's that's permitted doesn't have to be you know a sick policy it can be a pto vacation personal time policy what have you um and you're not required to give additional sick leave to the employee even if they use the time under that policy for reasons not covered under the sick leave law as long as three things are are satisfied number one you give the right amount of time so that includes the approval and usage and carry over information that marlon went over number two the time is available for the covered reasons under the law not necessarily that it will be used for those reasons but that it's available and number three and and maybe most importantly of all of them that the same conditions of the new york city law apply right to the use of that time those conditions is is a broad term can cover things like increments and notice to the employer and documentation and so on um okay next slide please all right a few additional topics also very important for employers to be aware of payment of sick time new york state's standard is you have to pay workers when they use sick leave at the regular rate of pay or the applicable minimum wage whichever is greater there is a bit of an open question is we said uh somewhat regularly on this webinar so far in terms of the meaning of the phrase regular rate of pay there are some faqs um that the state has released that suggests the regular rate of pay language just means the employee's standard base hourly wage but there's a more conservative reading that the regular rate of pay language means the regular rate under the federal fair labor standards act and that that flsa regular rate includes not just the base hourly rate but also things like commissions and premiums other extras um so that that becomes something that employers need to think through um under new york state as we're getting ready for that january one uh you know youth entitlement kicking in another important topic both in the state and the city for paid sick leave is available balance notice new york state says that upon the oral or written request of the employee the employer is required to give the employee a summary of certain information and that summary related related to sick leave information needs to be provided within three business days of the request the information that you have to give the worker is number one the amount of sick leave accrued the amount of sick we've used by that worker both in the current year and in a previous calendar year so be on the lookout for that as you're administering your programs uh no notice and posting requirements in new york state a uh a sort of sliver of good luck um a lot of paid sick we've lost impose notice and posting obligations including as we'll see on the next slide in new york city but new york state currently is silence on that point last one on this slide record keeping you can see the six year standard for new york state right employers are required for up to six years to maintain contemporaneous true and accurate payroll records that include among other things the amount of sick leave provided to each worker so make sure you're aware of that when you're getting your record keeping set up um as as the sickly vlog gets going next slide please all right same topics now in new york city um payments of sick leave again follows the the same standard as the the new york state uh the new york state law that we just went over that regular rate of pay language um one wrinkle in new york city that's worth being aware of is uh it also includes a timing of payment standard for employees in terms of for employers excuse me in terms of when they need to provide that payment to their employees so that's something that's worth being on the lookout for making sure your payroll system is up to snub there the timing specifically is that sick leave must be paid no later than the payday for the next regular payroll period beginning after the sick leave was used by the worker um there's a little wrinkle if you're requiring documentation and hasn't been provided but that that is the general standard there's also guidance from both the city and the state in terms of payment of sick leave for different uh types of workers depending on how they're compensated whether they're they're paid by commission or piece rate uh received tips um you know if they're working overtime so there is multiple rates to pay so there are some some good faqs out there both under the state and city levels on payment to sick leave available balance notice this is a new requirement that's why it's in red as marlon mentioned this is new as of september 30th those amendments in the city um the city website has stated that as long as employers are working in good faith on implementing this available balanced notice requirement and compliance they have up until november 30th so they got a basically a two-month gap a period to try to comply here um that's coming up in 11 days so companies are hopefully getting everything in order to provide this available balance information to workers that includes three substantive topics number one the amount of safe and sick time accrued during each pay period number two the amount of safe and sick time used each pay period and number three the employee's total state and stick time that information needs to be provided each pay period and it needs to be provided through one of the following mechanisms either on their pay statement you know pay stub which is the the cleanest and easiest way to do it if that's practical for the company or through another form of written documentation and that other form of written documentation is is another gray area under this law either the law you know the amended earned safe and sick time act or the updated faqs provide any insight into what that phrase means um does it mean you can only provide if you can't get the information on the pay stub because your payroll vendor can't can accomplish it your systems aren't able to handle it what have you do you have to submit the the information to the worker through some type of uh regular memo every pay period or through an email every pay period um that seems to be what the phrase is suggesting i've had quite a few companies ask about well can we submit the information comply by putting the information on our company portal you know our internet you know what have you um and that that really is an open question right now um you know whether that information can be posted through something on a company website company portal assuming all the workers have access to it they can get there you know regularly but still not without risk so given that that other form of written documentation language and the lack of guidance so far so something to pay attention to as as we move forward and hope for for updates and guidance and regulations and on the city's website notice in posting another big topic new topic for employers no obligation for employers is that they are mandated to post the city's model notice of employee rights in their place of business in an area that's accessible to employees the new york city website says that needs to be done by the beginning of next year so so still a little time to comply um it is unclear if employers need to post the the model notice in multiple languages right now the updated notice is available in both english and spanish although other translated versions are coming um it also is unclear although it seems certainly reasonable that given the the coveted world that we're all in that employers who want to post the model notice on their their company intranet or portal assuming that all workers have access to it um that that would be reasonable um in light of what's going on so nothing in the guidance currently says that but that you know so not without some risk but certainly a reasonable position to take under the circumstances um notice the the notice of employee rights needs to be given out to new hires it also needs to you know upon uh commencement of employment so during your it's part of onboarding it also needs to be provided um to uh to existing workers now the law itself the amended esta said that had to be provided within 30 days of the effective date of the amendments which was so that was september 30th at 30 days we've got october 30th but then the city's website came out and said you have until january 1st to do that so be aware that doing it as soon as possible certainly makes sense but the the website does suggest that there's a little bit of additional time for companies to take care of that requirement there's also information in terms of you have to provide it in certain languages based on the makeup of your workforce um you have to add your benefit year to the model notice both before it's distributed to workers individually and before it's posted um you also have to make sure that it is distributed in a method that reasonably ensures personal receipt um in terms of the the individual notice and that ing to the faq faq includes you know giving it to the worker personally by regular mail or by email so there is some some guidance on that point um finally record keeping three-year standard in new york city although again remember that new york state standard actually imposes a double the amount of time a six year standard so just keep that in mind when you're dealing with the record keeping in new york city next slide please all right written policy requirements uh new york state does not know the sick level itself does not have a written policy mandate but a separate session of the new york labor law specifically section 195.5 does um saying that every employer needs to notify their employees in writing or by publicly posting their policy on sick leave the state's website goes a bit further and says any limitations permitted by the law must be put into writing and either posted or given to workers it also says employers need to notify workers in writing or by posting a notice in the workplace of their any restrictions that you know in their leave policy affecting their use of sickly including limitations on increments of use um that those phrases any limitations any restrictions likely include things like increments of use reasons for use family members notice to the company documentation if we get any guidance there you know no payout on termination being required right all of that likely is now encompassed in this written policy requirement in new york state among other topics next slide please here is a quick rundown of new york city's very robust as i mentioned a little bit ago a written policy requirement um it is a is a lot and and certainly a lot for employers to think about based on how their program is set up um you can see you know a lot of the the nuanced topics here for your your own reference um importantly be aware that in addition to making sure your policy checks all of these these boxes and and hits on all of these different categories the the guidance from the state and the regulator the city excuse me and the regulations also say the employer needs to maintain its written sick and safe time policies in a single writing right so that's sort of a practical point to be aware of it says uh you know you in addition in addition you need to provide the policies to employees through a method that reasonably ensures personal receipt right so similar to that notice distribution i mentioned a few slides ago and you need to provide the policy to your workers personally upon commencement of employment within 14 days of the effective date of any changes or updates to the policy and upon request by the employee so a lot a lot within this written policy mandate in new york city next slide please and then finally this is sort of a a miscellaneous um you know reminder slide of some other topics you know all important nonetheless number one can't require workers under either law to search for or find replacements to cover them can't require workers to telecommute instead of using their sick leave um you need to maintain confidentiality um of of any sick leave information documentation that you obtain no retaliation no adverse actions no you know discipline of workers for use of sick time no applying attendance at current points um if they call out at the last minute but they're using their time for a covered sick leave reason you know when they haven't yet used the the full amount available to them for that year all very important you know new york city in particular is very sort of active and hot and heavy with enforcing unlawful retaliation also no interference with employees rights to exercise or actually use their rights under the law that includes you know not not being allowed to say your sick leave use is subject to manager approval right that's not something that uh that really flies under these laws and that's sort of built into the term no interference um finally no require a requirement to pay out earned unused sick leave upon termination of employment um so with that i'm going to uh next slide please i'm going to pass it quickly over to bill to uh give us a little bit of insight into the new york city earn safe and sick time act enforcement activity great thanks josh can we go to the next slide please um what's important is you know obviously we do not have any enforcement uh information with regard to the state law since it's really not starting until january but i think that that for the most part what's happened in new york city will probably be replicated for the state interestingly that that with regard to complaints received investigations open closed cases filed you see a fall off between 2017 and 2019. restitution that's gone up in 2019 as compared to the other two years for which we have data workers receiving restitution it's gone up since 2017 but slightly down from 2018 and with respect to penalties you know this is you can see that we're not talking about millions of dollars here uh but it it has slightly creeped up since uh 2018. we go to the next slide i think this is the the more most important one which really kind of shows a trend with respect to what you have to look forward to retaliation is up we have required documentation complaints that's up uh with respect to restricted use claims that that employee's not been allowed to use the time that is up um did not provide carryover that's down from last year but more importantly interfered with use has taken a major jump these are areas that that in terms of your administration of your plan you really have to pay very close attention to and ensure that you're not caught up in a claim as we saw from the first slide that we had on the screen you know there was a big rush to make complaints when the law first was passed it seems to be falling off but with the addition of new york state law uh we think that that coming into the next year we're gonna this is going to be a an area where plaintiff's lawyers may be becoming interested in so let's go to the next slide thank you yes thank you thank you bill so we've been talking about the new york state paid sick leave law and um new york city amended its earned safe and sick time law in order to align with that law so what's going on in westchester county and as you may know westchester county prior to the new york state law even going into effect had two separate laws an earned sick leave law and a separate safe time leave law so we're going to look at the status of these laws now first starting with the westchester county earned sick wave law as you can see there on the right side there is a note that you can find on the westchester county earned sick leave law website um prior to this note being there um there was robust information about the earned sick leave law now the only thing available on the website is a reference to the new york states sickly law and the website refers employers and employees to the state law for more information important thing to notice that the sick leave law itself has a reverse preemption clause this is a clause that says that the local law is null and void if um a statewide law goes into effect that incorporates either the same or substantially similar provisions as are contained in the sick leave law as you'll see at the bottom however it also provides that the board of legislators may determine via resolution whether or not an identical or substantially similar state what legislation has been enacted for purposes of triggering this provision uh what's on the website is not binding and we haven't seen any formal action by westchester to repeal its paid sick leave ordinance however the preemption clause when combined with what's on the website infers that the county might be sun setting its paid sick leave law in light of the new york state basically law this is important because the westchester county paid sickly law contains several areas where it's more generous than new york state paid sick leave law and in terms of reasons for use or family members or increments of use um so this is definitely a place where you should keep um you know you should uh keep an eye out on this to see if there are any developments there in terms of the safety law next slide please um although that law also contains a reverse preemption provision if you go on the westchester county's website um it still contains information about the law and it does not refer people to the new york state paid sick leave website uh which suggests that it's still in effect this is a separate evidence from the county's earned sick leave law and unlike most sick and safe leave laws it does not contain accrual or carryover provisions instead it just says that employees are entitled to take up 40 hours of paid safe time leave in a year for certain safe time reasons relating to the employee being a victim of domestic violence or human trafficking and you'll see the more specific reasons on the slide um just like sick and safely laws however it contains a number of other requirements and obligations including but not limited to usage increments payment of safe time notice posting and some of the other requirements that we addressed in connection with the new york state and new york city law and with that i'll pass it on to josh great thank you marlon um before we finish off with this last topic here i have the cle code to read for everyone the cle code for today's webinar is ss as in sci-fi shaw one one zero zero again the code is ss1100 one more time ss1100 that is the cle code for today um okay next slide please uh so we're going to just round out today with a quick uh outlook on new york state new york city westchester county sick leave and safe time mandates new york state as we mentioned usage of the sickly begins in about six weeks on january 1st we are awaiting regulations from the new york from new york state also you know definitely pay attention to the state sick leave website and faqs jurisdictions tend to update those without without warning um and it's usually a great place to find you know information and answers to questions so so definitely be on the lookout there uh same for new york city the increased usage limit from the 40 to the 56 hours for larger employers kicks in this january um we are awaiting and expecting amended regulations in the coming weeks and months also pay attention for updates on the city's website westchester county seems like the safe time ordinance is is here to stay you know seems like the sick leave ordinance might be on its way out so pay attention to developments there and to the extent you have workers in westchester county um you know finally we've hit upon a lot of open topics under these laws um throughout this presentation you know as a recap for things that we're looking for you know is there a cap on year and carry over in new york state that's going to be allowed does front loading allow user to lose it even though new york city faq say yes as marlon went over but new york state is silent on that point how do we determine the employer size for purposes of accrual caps and and usage caps do we only focus on the workers in the state or in the city we look you know to our larger u.s workforce um you know the available balance notice requirement big topic again can we just post the information on our intranet or portal you know or do we have to actually do that that separate written documentation um will new york state give us any clarity on if the documentation requirement can be imposed and then sort of how broad are the new york state standards in terms of the written policy requirement that we went over and also use of a non-stick paid time-off policy for compliance and that use requirements term um so lots of open questions more still to come we are expecting to uh address some of these questions in a future uh syria syria webinar as part of our paid sick leave series so as guidance comes out we'll be sure to keep everyone posted uh next slide please also just to round out um you know we have a a really deep bench and a great team of paid sick leave experts at sci farts um you know marlin and bill certainly among them um if you're struggling with your state sickly new york city sick leave or the larger you know patchwork that i went over at the beginning of the presentation we have a great resource in terms of a comprehensive sick lease survey that looks at every paid sick leave law state local federal every covist supplemental sick leave law and the pto laws that are starting to pop up breaks them down into about 50 different categories um you can also you know you might have any uh interest in that want more information feel free to email the sick leave scifi.com and you can also feel free to sign up for our pay sick leave mailing list at that website there at the bottom of this slide we regularly send out legal updates and blog posts on sick leave developments as we as we become aware of them next slide please i just want to say a big thank you to everyone for joining us really appreciate you taking your time hope everybody stays safe and healthy and thank you again please be on the lookout for the next part of our paid sick leave webinar series this concludes today's webinar as a reminder the presentation recording powerpoint and cle form will be emailed to all who registered within two days of the program thank you for attending you