On March 24, 2020, the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (“OLSE”) issued guidance regarding how employees can use paid sick leave they have accrued pursuant to San Francisco’s local ordinance during the local health emergency San Francisco is experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance
Under the San Francisco Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, employers are required to provide paid sick leave to all employees (including full-time, part-time, and temporary employees) who perform work in San Francisco (“San Francisco Paid Sick Leave”). Under the Ordinance, employees earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work.
Employers with 10 or more employees may cap an employee’s balance of San Francisco Paid Sick Leave at 72 hours. Employers with fewer than 10 employees may cap an employee’s balance at 40 hours.
When can employees use San Francisco Paid Sick Leave for COVID-19 related issues?
As always, an employee is entitled to use accrued San Francisco Paid Sick Leave when the employee (or a family member) is ill, injured, or for the purpose of receiving medical care (including preventive care), treatment, diagnosis, or other medical reason.
The OLSE has also specified that employees are entitled to use San Francisco Paid Sick Leave for the following COVID-19 related reasons:
- The employee takes time off work because public health officials or healthcare providers require or recommend an employee isolate or quarantine to prevent the spread of disease;
- The employee takes time off work because the employee falls within the definition of a “vulnerable population” under the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s March 6, 2020 guidelines (or any subsequent updates). As of March 6, 2020, a “vulnerable population” is a person who is 60 years old or older or a person with a health condition such as heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, kidney disease, or weakened immune system;
- The employee takes time off work because the employee’s business or a work location temporarily ceases operations in response to a public health or other public official’s recommendation (as distinguished from situations where an employee has been laid off, terminated, or had his or her hours reduced, as discussed in further detail below);
- The employee takes time off work because the employee needs to provide care for a family member who is not sick but who public health officials or healthcare providers have required or recommended isolate or quarantine; or
- The employee takes time off work because the employee needs to provide care for a family member whose school, child care provider, senior care provider, or work temporarily ceases operations in response to a public health or other public official’s recommendation.
Can employers require employees to provide a doctor’s note or other documentation of the need to use accrued San Francisco Paid Sick Leave?
No.
Under normal circumstances, employers may require an employee to provide a doctor’s note or other documentation where the employee seeks to use San Francisco Paid Sick Leave for more than three consecutive work days (whether full or partial days).
However, as of March 24, 2020, the portion of the PSLO that allows employers to seek such documentation is suspended for the duration of the local health emergency caused by COVID-19.
Are employees whose hours are reduced or eliminated entitled to use San Francisco Paid Sick Leave to compensate for those hours?
No.
Employees who have been laid off or terminated, even as a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency, are not eligible to use (or cash out) any accrued San Francisco Paid Sick Leave. (Employers are also not required to pay employees for any accrued San Francisco Paid Sick Leave they have on the books when they separate from employment.)
Similarly, employees whose hours are reduced or eliminated are not entitled to use accrued San Francisco Paid Sick Leave to compensate for the lost hours (though such employees may be eligible for unemployment benefits). However, as long as an employee is scheduled to work, he or she may use accrued San Francisco Paid Sick Leave for any qualifying reason for any portion of the scheduled hours that the employee is unable to work.
To illustrate, if an employer reduces an employee’s scheduled hours from 8 hours per day to 4 hours per day, the employee cannot work his 4 scheduled hours and use his accrued San Francisco Paid Sick Leave to receive pay for the 4-hour reduction. However, if the employee cannot work the 4 hours he is scheduled to work as a result of one of the qualifying reasons listed above, he can use accrued San Francisco Paid Sick Leave to receive pay for those hours.
Further guidance on the use of paid sick leave is available at www.sfgov.org/olse/pslo, or call OLSE’s multilingual paid sick leave hotline at (415) 554-6271.
