San Francisco Extends Paid COVID-19 Depart

Wednesday February 10, 2021

On February 9, 2021, the San Francisco Board of Directors decided to extend the deadline for taking San Francisco public health emergency leave. On April 17, 2020, the Board of Directors issued the Ordinance on the State of Emergency in the Public Health (PHELO) for the first time and extended it for subsequent periods of around 60 days each. The mayor approved and must approve each of the previous expansions. In this case, the regulation expires 61 days later.

The regulation applies to employers with 500 or more employees in Germany. Similar to the reasons that federal employees may take vacation under the Federal Coriesavirus Response Act, eligible employees may take PHELO vacation for the following reasons:

• “The employee is subject to an individual or general state, state, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19.”

• “The employee was ordered by a healthcare provider to quarantine himself.”

• “The employee has symptoms related to COVID-19 and is seeking a medical diagnosis.

• “The employee cares for a family member who is subject to an order under subsection (a) (1), as advised in subsection (a) (2) above, or who has symptoms as described in subsection (1). a) (3). ”

• “The employee looks after a family member when the family member’s school or care facility has been closed, or the family member’s care provider is unavailable due to a public health emergency.

• “The employee is suffering from another substantially similar condition identified by the local health officer or as specified in Section 5102 (a) (6) of the [Families First Coronavirus Response] U.S. Secretary of Health Act. “

The expansion changes the original PHELO in the following ways.

First, the extension excludes certain non-profit organizations from complying with the regulation. However, non-profit organizations are entitled to the exemption if they do not engage in health care activities as defined in the extension of the regulation. To be eligible, nonprofits must maintain the valid status of Internal Revenue Code Section 501 (c) (3).

Second, the extension removes the provision of the previous regulation that employees can take PHELO leave regardless of whether and when the employee is due to leave. This means that employees can now only use PHELO leave for the times when the employer plans the employee to go to work.

Finally, employers should take into account that the regulation only extends the period during which workers have to take the mandatory vacation. The regulation does not require an employer to top up an employee’s PHELO vacation account.

© 2021, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak and Stewart, PC, all rights reserved.National Law Review, Volume XI, Number 41