Paid Sick Leave

One of the main areas where I see employers botch their legal duties to their employees (and thereby potentially invite lawsuits) arises with employees who request disability leaves. There are different laws that provide for disability-related leave, such as the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the analogous California Family Rights Act (CFRA) (both of which apply only to employers with 50 or more employees), as well as California’s Pregnancy Disability Leave law. But the most common type of leave requested is disability leave under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).

The City of Los Angeles’s paid sick leave ordinance went into effect for employers with 26 or more employees last July. The City’s sick leave law takes effect for employers with 25 or fewer employees on July 1, 2017. Under the City’s ordinance, employees are entitled to take up to 48 hours of sick leave annually, which is double the amount provided for by California’s paid sick leave law.

On March 14, 2017, the City of Los Angeles updated its Rules and Regulations and issued a new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) regarding the City’s Minimum Wage Ordinance (MWO) that went into effect last year, and which annually provides 48 hours of paid sick leave to employees who work within the geographic boundaries of the City of Los Angeles. Under the MWO, paid sick leave went into effect on July 1, 2016 for employers with 26 or more employees, and will go into effect on July 1, 2017 for employers with 25 or fewer employees. As with California’s paid sick leave law (the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act), paid sick leave under the MWO may be used for the purposes of preventive care or for the diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health condition of an employee or employee’s family member, or for specified purposes for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

The following is a summary of the MWO’s main features regulating paid sick leave in the City of Los Angeles as set forth in the City’s updated Rules and Regulations and FAQ. …