New COVID-19 related federal paid leave requirements effective tomorrow
On March 18, 2020 Congress passed and the president signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act(FFCRA). There are two key pieces to the FFCRA – the Emergency Paid Leave Act and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act. The FFCRA, in part, applies to businesses with under 500 employees and provides workers with paid leave in a variety of situations if they are impacted by COVID-19. While employment law is somewhat beyond the scope of our expertise at NAFCU and credit unions may need to consult with counsel in this area during these challenging times, we wanted to give some basic highlights of these new paid leave requirements as these provisions go into effect tomorrow, April 1, 2020. Note, these provisions expire on December 31, 2020.
Emergency Paid Leave Act
This part requires credit unions to provide two weeks of paid sick leave in several situations, with amounts of paid leave permitted depending on reason for the leave. Specifically, there are six cases where an employee would be entitled to paid leave if they are impacted by COVID-19:
- The employee is subject to a federal, state or local quarantine or isolation order;
- The employee was advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine;
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