State, County, and City Orders Applicable to Large Employers

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Employers of all sizes must be aware of city and county health and safety orders where they do business, and any extensions or amendments to them. Employers must comply with the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act, state laws and the governor's executive order.

Some cities and counties are adopting ordinances that affect private employers with 500 or more employees. Following are examples of such orders recently approved.

LOS ANGELES CITY

The COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave emergency order applies to employers with 500 or more employees within the city of Los Angeles, or 2,000 or more employees within the U.S. The number is determined by how many people were employed from February 3, 2020 to March 4, 2020. The presumption is that an individual is an employee, which an employer must rebut to show that someone on the list qualifies as an independent contractor.

Exceptions to the sick leave order include health-care providers or first responders (peace officers, firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, public safety dispatchers or safety telecommunicators, emergency response communication employees, rescue service personnel).

Under the Los Angeles order, emergency sick leave must be granted:

• on oral or written request, and no doctor’s note or other documentation is required (uses are limited to taking time off);
• because a health-care provider requires or recommends an employee to isolate or self-quarantine;
• because an employee is 65 or older or has a health condition such as heart disease, asthma, lung disease, diabetes, kidney disease or a weakened immune system;
• to care for a family member who is not sick but who public health officials or health-care providers require or recommend to isolate or self-quarantine;
• to provide care for a family member whose senior care provider or school or child care provider (for children younger than 18) closed in response to a public health or other public official’s recommendation.

Here are some exemptions and offsets of the order:

• Supplemental paid sick leave runs concurrently with paid sick leave under the FFCRA, and is an addition to California- and Los Angeles-mandated paid sick leave.
• City law requires that sick leave be given to employees, and that they may accrue and use as many as six days of paid leave annually. Under the emergency order, large employers must give an additional 10 days to employees who work at least 40 hours a week to enable them to care for a family member who is not sick but who public health officials or health-care providers require or recommend to isolate or self-quarantine.
• If an employer has provided paid leave since March 4 for reasons related to COVID-19, those hours will be offset against the 80-hour requirement. For example, if an employer provided a full-time employee five hours of paid leave for COVID-19 purposes after March 4, it would be obligated to provide only 75 hours under the emergency order.

SAN FRANCISCO

On April 7, 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted an emergency ordinance (the “PHELO”) that requires private employers with 500 or more employees to provide paid public health emergency eligible employees affected by COVID-19. The measure allows eligible employees to take up to 80 hours of supplemental paid leave for COVID-19 related reasons.

All employees who have been performed 56 or more hours of work as an employee in the City and County of San Francisco. The ordinance includes part time and temporary employees. Employers of health care workers or first responders can elect to exclude their workers.

Supplemental paid sick leave can be used because the employee:

• Is subject to an individual or general Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;
• Has been advised by a health care provider to self quarantine;
• Is experiencing symptoms associated with COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis;
• Is caring for a family member who is subject to an order as described above, has been advised to self-quarantine, or is experiencing symptoms associated with COVID-19;
• Is caring for a family member if the school or child care provider of the family member is closed or unavailable due to COVID 19;
• Is experiencing any other substantially similar conditions specified by the local heal officer.

Unlike the FFCRA, which is scheduled to remain in effect through December 31, 2020, the PHELO will remain in effect until the 61st day following enactment (unless San Francisco enacts a separate measure extending the timeframe) or the COVID-19 PHE ends, whichever occurs first.

SAN JOSE

The City of San Jose has enacted a similar ordinance affecting all employers not already covered by the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA). The measure allows eligible employees to take up to 80 hours of paid leave for COVID-19 related reasons. Benefits are immediately available and expire on December 31, 2020.

Eligible employees are those that have worked at least 2 hours within the City’s geographic boundaries and who leave their residence to perform essential work.

Sick leave need not be provided to:

• Employees who work from home;
• Employees who are already provided with some form of paid personal leave as long as it is at least equal to what the employee would have received under the ordinance. The employer must make up any difference between the employees paid leave and the amount of leave provided under the ordinance.

Similar to the FFCRA the employee will receive full pay for absences related to his or her own illness (capped at $511 a day and $5110 in total) and up to 2/3 the employee’s regular rate of pay for caring for a family member (capped at $200 a day and $2,000 total).

Sick leave can be used for any of the following reasons:

• The employee is subject to quarantine or isolation by federal, state or local order or is caring for someone who is quarantined or isolated;
• A healthcare provider advised the employee to self-quarantine or the employee is caring for someone who has been advised to quarantine;
• The employee is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and is seeking a medical diagnosis; or
• The employee is caring for a child under the age of 18 because a school or daycare is closed due to COVID-19.

Businesses are encouraged to check their local health and safety orders frequently to be sure they are complying with all requirements.

An in-depth look at the provisions of all of the individual city ordinances beyond the scope of this guide; however, we have assembled links to the ordinances in Appendix A for your reference.

SEE ALSO

• State and Local Workplace Safety Orders
• Appendix: Web Links For Local Safety Orders

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