by New York Employment Law Letter
New York City employers need to be ready for the city’s new Earned Sick Time Act by the April 1 effective date.
Beginning April 1, the law, passed last summer over the veto of then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, requires private-sector employers with 20 or more employees in New York City to offer at least 40 hours of annual paid sick leave to each employee. Employers with fewer than 20 employees in the city will be required to offer at least 40 hours of unpaid sick leave to each employee per year.
As of October 1, 2015, private-sector employers with 15 or more employees will have to offer at least 40 hours of annual paid sick leave to each employee, and private-sector employers with fewer than 15 employees will be required to offer at least 40 hours of unpaid sick leave to each employee per year.
The implementation dates of the law may be postponed if economic indicators based on a financial index maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York don’t meet certain conditions.
Not covered under the act are independent contractors, work-study students, public-sector employees, or certain types of hourly professional employees. Under the law, an eligible employee will earn at least one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, and part-time workers will earn sick leave at the same rate.
Employers aren’t required to permit employees to use their accrued sick leave until 120 calendar days after the start of their employment, although they can allow employees to use sick time before 120 calendar days.
The law allows accrued sick leave to be used for the following reasons:
- The employee’s health condition;
- The employee’s need to care for a spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, or the child or parent of a spouse or domestic partner; and
- The closure of the employee’s workplace because of a public health emergency or the employee’s need to care for a child whose school or childcare provider has been closed because of a public health emergency.
Employers may require documentation that sick leave was used for one of the allowed reasons if the absence is for more than three consecutive workdays. The law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for using sick leave or filing a complaint alleging a violation of the law.
For sick leave that is foreseeable, employers may require up to seven days’ notice. For leave that isn’t foreseeable, employers may require notice as soon as practicable.
For more information on the Earned Sick Time Act, see the August 2013 issue of New York Employment Law Letter.