Employment Law Bulletin - New York sick leave update and action items
Per our bulletin earlier this month, New York State recently passed a statewide sick leave law. The State just has begun to release guidance (found here https://www.ny.gov/new-york-paid-sick-leave/new-york-paid-sick-leave#amount-of-leave; please note the FAQs at the bottom) beyond the actual text of the law. In the meantime, though, New York City amended its own, preexisting safe/sick leave law, both in part to match certain elements of the State law, but also to add brand new requirements with which employers must comply in short order. We highlight three of them here.
First, employers must list on employees’ paystubs (or any document issued each pay period) the amounts of accrued and used sick leave and the total balance of accrued leave. This requirement is in effect now, but employers working in good faith on implementation generally have until November 30 to comply. (Please note: even outside of New York City, the new State law also requires that an employer’s payroll records include the amount of sick leave accrued and used by each employee on a weekly basis.)
Second, the amended law requires employers to distribute to employees a notice of the law with its new amendments, and also to conspicuously post the notice at the employer’s place of business in an area accessible to employees. The City has released a model notice, here: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dca/downloads/pdf/about/PaidSafeSickLeave-MandatoryNotice-English.pdf. Three important points regarding this new notice: (1) it appears to replace the prior NYC Earned Safe and Sick Time Act notice that employers have been distributing to new hires for years; (2) to reiterate, unlike the prior notice, this new notice must be distributed to employees and must be posted; and (3) finally, although the text of the law is less than clear (and there is an apparent discrepancy on the City’s own website), the safest reading is that the new notice must be given to current employees and posted by October 30. Employees whose primary languages are other than English will need to receive a copy in their primary languages, but that requirement is pending the City releasing translated notices (which it has not yet done).
Third, effective immediately, while an employer still may require certain documentation (such as a note from a licensed medical provider, attesting to both the existence of a need for sick leave and the amount of work hours or days used as sick leave) from an employee after more than three consecutive days of leave, the employer now must reimburse the employee for any cost of obtaining the documentation.
