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The California Supreme Court recently ruled that employees are not entitled to unlimited time off to care for family members who are ill.

Under the California Kin Care law implemented in 1999, employers that offer accrued sick leave to workers must allow employees to use up to half their annual total to care for a spouse, child, parent or domestic partner who is ill.

Then as now, there is no requirement under the law that any California employer must provide sick leave to employees. However, for employers who choose to offer this benefit, the law addresses how it may be used.

In a rare unanimous ruling, the court found that the California Kin Care law applies only when a company awards a specific amount of sick leave, and that sick leave can be accrued.

The trend among some larger companies is to offer employees unlimited sick leave, especially under certain collective bargaining agreements.

Applauding the victory for California employers, attorney Anthony Oncidi noted that the law was a “perfect example” of a well-meaning law that resulted in abuse by employees. He noted that many California companies had actually reduced or eliminated sick leave policies, due to the previous restrictions.

In the test case involving telephone company AT&T, Inc., the employer provided up to 5 days of paid sick leave for a legitimate illness in any 7-day period. The sick leave period reset each time the employee returned to work, under a collective bargaining agreement. (more…)

The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement or DLSE recently issued an opinion that would permit employers to deduct vacation and sick leave for an exempt employee’s absence of less than 4 hours, as long as the deduction is consistent with the employer’s written policies.

In addition, the letter permits a California employer to deduct a combination of paid sick leave and vacation for a partial-day absence.

This opinion letter does not have the force of law, and employers should wait to implement this policy until the California courts have ruled on the change in regulations.

This opinion letter represents a major change in California policy. In California, as in other states, an exempt employee who works part of the day is entitled to payment for the entire day. However, the issue was how that payment would be tabulated. The state has long held that an exempt employee who worked a partial day could not have sick or vacation time of less than 4 hours deducted from the employee’s balance. That policy was in opposition to federal law as interpreted by courts in most areas of the country.

Suppose Susan is an exempt employee who normally works 8 hours per day. One Tuesday, Susan works 6 hours and goes home early with the flu. (more…)

 Senator Ted Kennedy recently introduced a bill – called the Healthy Families Act– that would implement a mandatory sick leave law.

If passed, the bill would require most employers to provide up to 7 paid sick days per year to employees.

In the House, the mandatory sick leave law introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro  is called HR 2460.

The mandatory sick leave law would apply to employers that have 15 or more full-time workers (or the equivalent) for at least 20 weeks of the year.

The bill would require that workers earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, beginning on the day the worker is hired. Employees would be eligible to use paid sick leave after 60 days.

Employers throughout the U.S. are carefully watching what is happening these days in the District of Columbia.

D.C. has approved a controversial new act known as the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008, which essentially requires employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers. The act may be the harbinger of paid sick leave elsewhere, and has become an important topic among HR professionals.

Employees who would be eligible are those who, first of all, spend at least 50% of their work time in the District of Columbia. They must also have accumulated a year of continuous service and at least 1,000 hours of work in the previous 12 months, under the proposed act.

The new law is quite broad. Employers would be required to give paid sick leave to any of these eligible employees for any absences connected with (more…)

On January 1, 2009, New Jersey becomes the third state in the nation to implement a family leave insurance program. The New Jersey Paid Family Leave Act will permit employees to take paid time off to care for a sick family member. The act also provides benefits to workers who take time off to bond with newborn or newly-adopted children.

The New Jersey Family Leave Insurance program is funded by employee tax deductions. The program provides benefits to employees to partially replace income lost when they must take time from work. The law does not entitle employees to additional leave, over and above existing family leave laws such as FMLA, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act and the New Jersey Family Leave Act or NJFLA.

The New Jersey Paid Family Leave program does not guarantee that an employee will be returned to his or her job after leave; it simply provides cash benefits during the leave.

Under the new law, a New Jersey employer can require any employee to use up to two weeks of paid vacation or sick leave, or other paid leave, before going on leave. During these two weeks, (more…)