Hi, here’s your HR quickie for today, January 28^th, 2022.

So, Governor Newsom announced that California is bringing back additional paid sick leave for employees impacted by COVID 19.

As you may recall, last year the federal government, and then separately the state of California, put additional paid sick leave in place in response to the pandemic.  Those programs expired on September 30^th and December 31^st of last year, respectively.

Well, in response to the current Omicron uptick, the governor and state lawmakers announced an agreement to reinstate a supplemental sick leave program.  Although a law hasn’t yet been signed, it’s expected that the state ‘s Congress will fast track it in the next few weeks.

So what is this reinstatement?  Well, first off it’s for employers with 26 or more employees.

And secondly – it would be retroactive to January 1 of this year, and it would expire on September 30, 2022.

Your full time employees would get up to 40 hours of paid sick leave if they’re sick or caring for someone who’s sick

And – that 40 hour limit is increased to 80 hours if they have proof of a positive COVID test.

Part time employees would get the additional sick leave too – it would just be pro rated based on the number of hours they work each week.

Your employees can also use of to 3 days of that sick time for them or their covered family member, to get vaccinated, or to recover from post vaccination symptoms.

Now, I’m sure your next question is – how am I going to pay for all this, particularly since it’s on top of the required 3 days of paid sick leave California already has in place.

Well, the agreement includes separate proposals to restore some tax credits for businesses.

Again, all this isn’t signed yet – but we’ll keep you updated when everything is finalized.