Can an employer require a worker who is quarantined to exhaust paid sick leave?
The employer cannot require that the worker use paid sick leave; that is the worker’s choice.
If the worker decides to use paid sick leave, the employer can require they take a minimum of two hours of paid sick leave.
​The determination of how much paid sick leave will be used is up to the employee.

COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave

Employers must start providing this new leave on March 29, 2021.
Covered Employers
The new COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave applies to all employers with more than 25 employees, a dramatic expansion from AB 1867, which applied to employers with 500 or more employees. It also separately covers certain in-home supportive service providers.

Employee Eligibility
All employees working for covered employers are eligible for leave. Compared to AB 1867, SB 95 increases the number of qualifying reasons for which employees can take leave. Now, employees may take paid sick leave if they’re unable to work or telework because they’re:
  1. Subject to a quarantine or isolation period related to COVID-19 as defined by an order or guidelines of the State Department of Public Health, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or a local health officer who has jurisdiction over the workplace.
  2. Advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine.
  3. Attending an appointment to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
  4. Experiencing symptoms related to a COVID-19 vaccine that prevent the employee from being able to work or telework.
  5. Experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis.
  6. Caring for a family member who is subject to an order or guidelines, or who has been advised to self-quarantine.
  7. Caring for a child whose school or place of care is closed for COVID-19 reasons.
Employers cannot request a medical certification before granting COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave. Employees are entitled to take leave immediately upon their request.

Leave Amounts
Full-time employees are eligible for 80 hours of COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave.
Part-time employees are eligible for an amount of leave equal to the number of hours they’re normally scheduled to work in two weeks. If an employee works a varying schedule, they’re entitled to hours equal to 14 times the average number of hours the employee worked each day in the prior six months, or over the total time of employment if less than six months.

Rate of Pay
The rate of pay under SB 95 differs from the AB 1867 methodology.
For nonexempt employees, employers must pay the highest of the following rates:
  • Rate calculated in the same manner as the regular rate of pay for the workweek in which the employee uses COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave, whether or not the employee actually works overtime in that workweek.
  • Rate calculated by dividing the employee’s total wages, not including overtime premium pay, by the employee’s total hours worked in the full pay periods of the prior 90 days of employment.
  • The state minimum wage.
  • The local minimum wage to which the employee is entitled.
For exempt employees, the rate of pay must be calculated in the same manner that the employer calculates wages for other forms of paid leave.
The amount of pay is capped at $511 per day and $5,110 total per employee.

Leave Interactions
SB 95 provides a fresh bank of paid leave, in addition to already existing paid sick leave under California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families law. Employers cannot require an employee to use other paid or unpaid leaves before the employee uses COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave.
The bill specifically addresses Cal/OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard, stating that in order for employers to comply with the standard’s requirement to maintain the earnings of employees exposed to COVID-19 and excluded from the workplace (also referred to as exclusion pay), employers may require an employee to first exhaust their COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave.
The law also contains an offset provision stating that if an employer has already provided an employee with supplemental paid leave after January 1, 2021, for any of the qualifying reasons included in this law, and the amount is equal to or greater than that required by this law, then the employer may count the hours of the other paid benefit or leave towards the new requirement. But, because SB 95 provides a fresh bank of leave, any leave granted last year under AB 1867 or the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) does not count towards the new leave obligations.

Notice and Wage Statements
Employers are required to provide notice to their employees informing them of their rights to supplemental paid sick leave under the new law. Employers need to provide notice before March 29, 2021.

Additionally, the COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave must be reflected on employees’ wage statements. The new law specifies that the COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave must be set forth separately from other paid sick days. For employees with part-time or variable schedules, the law allows employers to do an initial calculation of leave time available with the notation “variable” next to it. Employers must still provide updated calculations when employees request to use their COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave.

Effective Dates and Retroactivity
As a “budget bill,” the law took effect when it was signed on March 19, 2021, but it provides a ten-day grace period, meaning employers must start providing leave on March 29, 2021.
The bill states that the law applies “retroactively to January 1, 2021” in order to “protect the economic well-being of covered employees who took leave” after the expiration of the FFCRA and AB 1867. As such, employers will have to make retroactive payments for leave taken for any of the qualifying reasons between January 1, 2021, and March 28, 2021, “upon oral or written request of the employee.” 
The employee must initiate the retroactive payment by submitting an oral or written request. The payment must be paid on or before the payday for the next full pay period after the oral or written request by the employee and must be reflected on the applicable wage statement. Any such retroactive payment will count towards the total number of COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave required by this law. The new California COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave expires on September 30, 2021.
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Benefits for Workers Impacted by COVID-19
What should I do if I am unable to work after being exposed to COVID-19?
California State Disability Insurance/Sick or Quarantined​
Individuals who are unable to work due to having or being exposed to COVID-19 (certified by a medical professional) can file a Disability Insurance (DI) claim.
Disability Insurance provides short-term benefit payments to eligible workers who have full or partial loss of wages due to a non-work-related illness, injury, or pregnancy. Benefit amounts are approximately 60-70 percent of wages (depending on income) and range from $50 - $1,300 a week.​
Workers' Compensation Presumption for COVID-19
The legislation established a rebuttable presumption for COVID-19 cases contracted by certain first responders and health care workers and for other California employers with five or more employees if an outbreak occurs in the workplace.

Workers’ Compensation Presumption Frequently Asked Questions​ >>> Click Here
  
Workers Compensation Info
  • If you are unable to do your usual job because you were exposed to and contracted COVID-19 during the regular course of your work, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. 
  • Benefits include temporary disability (TD) payments, which begin when your doctor says you can't do your usual work for more than three days or you are hospitalized overnight. You may be entitled to TD for up to 104 weeks. TD stops when either you return to work, your doctor releases you for work, or your doctor says your illness has improved as much as it's going to. 
  • TD generally pays two-thirds of the gross wages you lose while you are recovering from a work-related illness or injury, up to maximum weekly amount set by law. In addition, eligible employees are entitled to medical treatment and additional payments if a doctor determines you suffered a permanent disability because of the illness.
  • Learn more about your eligibility for Workers' Compensation benefits
  • ​File a Workers' Compensation claim
California Paid Family Leave/Caregiving
Californians who are unable to work because they are caring for an ill or quarantined family member with COVID-19 (certified by a medical professional) can file a Paid Family Leave (PFL) claim.
Paid Family Leave provides up to six weeks of benefit payments to eligible workers who have a full or partial loss of wages because they need time off work to care for a seriously ill family member or to bond with a new child. Benefit amounts are approximately 60-70 percent of wages (depending on income) and range from $50-$1,300 a week.​
Paid Sick Leave
Unemployment Insurance/School Closures
  • If you have lost your job or have had your hours reduced for reasons related to COVID-19
  • If your child’s school is closed, and you have to miss work to be there for them. Considerations include if you have no other care options and if you are unable to continue working your normal hours remotely.
  • Partial wage replacement benefit payments to workers who lose their job or have their hours reduced, through no fault of their own. 
  • Range from $40-$450 per week for up to 26 weeks. 
  • Learn more about your eligibility for Unemployment Insurance
  • File an Unemployment Insurance claim
School Activities/Emergency Leave
​​In California, employers with 25 or more employees working at the same location must permit employees to take time off for certain child-related activities, including to address a child-care provider or school emergency. Such an emergency includes closure or unexpected unavailability of the school or child-care provider.
  • Employees may take up to 40 hours each year for school activities. Employees are limited to eight hours per month for most activities, but that limitation doesn’t apply to emergencies. Thus, employees may be able to use all 40 hours for the current school closures.
  • The parent has a child who attends kindergarten or grades 1 through 12 or is with a licensed childcare provider.
  • The law includes the following-Parent, legal guardian, stepparent, foster parent, grandparent, or person standing in loco parentis to the child.
  • If both parents work for the same employer, only one parent is allowed to take leave at any given time. The parent who files first for leave is given priority. Employers may allow both parents to take leave, but that is up to the employer.
  • A parent is required to provide notice of the intent to take time off from work. 
  • Employers may ask for proof that the employee utilized the time for child related-activities permitted under the law.
  • For purposes of leave, employees are required to use existing vacation days, personal days, or other compensatory time.
  • An employee is also allowed to utilize any time off without pay as provided by the employer
Personal Protective Equipment
Protections at Work for Covid-10

Cal/Osha Website

John Hopkins Covid-19 Interactive Map Of The World

​AB 685 – COVID Reporting

SB 1159 – Workers’ Compensation
This ​new law provides that if an employer receives a notice of potential exposure to COVID (e.g. notice that an employee has COVID or was exposed to COVID in the workplace), the employer must take all of the following steps
​within ONE BUSINESS DAY of the notice of potential exposure:
​On July 6, 2020 SB 1159 signed into law, extending the presumption for illness or injury associated with contracting COVID, by creating a presumption that the illness was work-related. work-related certain classes of workers, and imposing new notice requirements on employers. These new provisions will be codified as Labor Code sections 3212.86-3212.88,
​and take effect immediately as urgency legislation.
  • Provide written notice to all employees, and the employers of subcontracted employees, who were on the premises at the same worksite as the qualifying individual [e.g. an employee who was diagnosed with COVID, ordered to isolate in accordance with an official health order, or died of COVID) within the infectious period that they may have been exposed to COVID.  Written notice should be provided in the manner normally used to communicate employment-related information and may include personal service, email, or text message. 
  • Provide a written notice to the exclusive representative, if any, of the employees.  This notice must include the same information that is required to be reported in a Cal/OSHA Form 300 injury and illness log (regardless of whether the employer is required to maintain such a log). 
  • Provide all employees who may have been exposed and the exclusive representative, if any, with information regarding COVID-related benefits to which the employee may be entitled under applicable federal, state, or local laws, including, but not limited to, workers’ compensation, and options for exposed employees, including COVID-related leave, company sick leave, state-mandated leave, supplemental sick leave, or negotiated leave provisions, as well as anti-retaliation and anti-discrimination protections of the employee. 

Notify all employees, and the employers of subcontracted employees and the exclusive representative, if any, on the disinfection and safety plan that the employer plans to implement and complete per the guidelines of the federal Centers for Disease Control.  

In addition to the foregoing, if an employer is notified that its number of cases meet the definition of a COVID “outbreak,” as defined by the State Department of Public Health, the employer has additional reporting obligations to their local public health agency within 48 hours.
​
The foregoing reporting requirements do not apply to employees who, as part of their duties, conduct COVID testing or screening or provide direct patient care or treatment to individuals who are known to have tested positive for COVID, are persons under investigation, or are in quarantine or isolation related to COVID, unless the qualifying individual is an employee at the same worksite.
 
Employers are required to maintain records of the required employee/union notifications for 3 years.
 
In addition to the foregoing, AB 685 gives Cal/OSHA authority to prohibit certain operations or processes, or even entry into a workplace, if it determines that all or part of a workplace exposes workers to the risk of infection with COVID to constitute an imminent hazard to employees.
​Of first order is that the new law, passed as an emergency measure and effective immediately, requires all employers with 5 or more employees to provide their workers’ compensation carrier with information about employees who tested COVID+ since July 6, 2020 within the next thirty days.

With respect to employees diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 19 and July 5, 2020, the new law codifies the Executive Order and applies to any employee that has a COVID-19 related illness that occurred within 14 days after the last day the person worked.  Such employees qualify for the presumption of Workers’ Compensation coverage requiring an employer to act quickly and accept or deny the claim within 30-days.  If the claim is not denied within 30-days, it is presumed compensable.  Otherwise, the presumption is only rebuttable by evidence discovered after the initial 30-day period.
For employees infected with COVID-19 after July 6, 2020, the law creates two categories of employees with slightly different rules:
  • First, Section 3212.87 provides the presumption of compensable injury to specific first responders and health care professionals.  This section applies to workers if they test positive on or after July 6, 2020 and within 14 days after their last day of work.  Testing must be under a PCR test and does not include employees working from home, except for providers of home supportive services.   Here, an employer has 30 days after the claim is made to accept or deny the claim.  If the claim is not rejected within 30-days, it is presumed to be compensable.  Otherwise, the presumption of industrial injury is only rebuttable by evidence discovered after the initial 30-day period.
  • Second, Section 3212.88 applies to all other employees who test positive during an “outbreak” at the employee’s specific place of employment after July 5, 2020 where the employer has 5 or more employees.  An outbreak is defined for employers with 100 or fewer employees as 4 employees testing positive with PCR tests within a 14 day period, or for employers with more than 100 employees, 4 percent of the employees testing positive in such a period.  Also, an outbreak is deemed to have occurred if the employer is closed by a local health department, OSHA or a school superintendent due to risk of COVID-19 infection.  For these employees, the employer has 45 days to determine compensability from the date of the claim.  If the claim is denied or no decision is made timely, the presumption is only rebuttable by evidence discovered after the initial 45-day period.  Relevant evidence to controvert the presumption includes an employer’s efforts to reduce potential workplace transmission of COVID-19 and evidence of an employee’s other risk factors, and non-occupational risks of COVID-19 infection, i.e. an employee’s activities outside of the workplace.