D.C. Council Approves Paid Sick Leave Bill
The D.C. City Council approved the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008 yesterday that requires employers to provide their employees with paid sick leave, becoming the second city in the nation to do so. The Washington Post has a story here. The Mayor must still sign the bill, and Congress has 30 days to review it. The Act will apply 6 months after such approval.
The text of the amended bill can be found here. Here are some of the details:
- The employee must have worked for the employer for 90 days.
- Independent contractors and certain health care workers are excluded from coverage.
- Employers with 100 or more employees must provide up to 7 paid sick leave days a year; employers with 25-99 employees must provide up to 5 paid sick leave days a year; employers with 24 or less employees must provide up to three paid sick leave days a year. Eligibility is determined by hours worked.
- Paid leave may be used for the employee’s illness or medical care, or to care for a child, parent, spouse or domestic partner, or for parental leave pursuant to the D.C. Parental Leave Act. Leave may also be taken for certain situations connected with domestic violence, including court appearances.
- Unused leave may carry over, but an employee may not actually use more than the annual amount provided in the statute.
- Unused leave does not have to be paid out upon termination of employment.
- The bill includes notification and medical certification provisions.
- Employers may not discriminate against or discharge an employee for taking leave under the Act or engaging in other specific protected activities.
- Employers must post a proscribed notice in the workplace regarding the Act.
Tags: D.C.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:00 am
I have a question: For purposes of determining whether an employer is large or small, do all of the employees have to be at one location, or are do you count the number of employees at different worksites within a certain mile radius of each other?
March 6th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Unlike the FMLA, the Act does not specifically answer that question, so here is how I would look at it.
The Act defines an “employer” as someone who employs an “employee.” An “employee” is someone who works more than 50% of their time in DC or a substantial portion of time in DC if they work in no one place more than 50%.
The amount of leave an employee is entitled to is determined by the number of “employees” the “employer” has. The Act says that “the number of employees of an employer shall be determined by the average monthly number of full time equivalent employees for the prior calendar year.”
Based on this, it appears that you would count the total number of “employees” — i.e. people working in DC more than 50% of the time or a substantial portion of their time in DC if no one place more than 50% — regardless of where they work in DC. If all of your employees are in DC, that makes things easy. If some work outside of DC, you will have to determine whether they meet the definition of “employee” in order for them to count.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Of course, I hate to do this but here is the disclaimer: this site does not provide legal advice for any specific situation. Please consult with employment counsel about the specific application of any law to your situation.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
An amendment was passed requiring new workers to wait for 12 months before they can access the benefit, not 90 days as you state.
The bill adopted the definition of “employee” from the DCFMLA.
This is the new bill.
Note that they have left in the 90 day rule under Section 3 (c) 1 and Section 3 (c) 3. Oversight, I’m guessing.
Here’s an article on the one year waiting period.
Here’s the Washington Post report on this legislation, which discusses this amendment in the third and fourth paras.