Beginning October 1, 2016, employers in Montgomery County, Maryland are required to provide paid sick and safe leave to their employees. Earlier this week, the Montgomery County Council unanimously passed paid sick leave legislation, which will enable workers to stay home with pay when they are under the weather or need to care for a family member.
The law requires employers to provide each employee with earned sick/safe leave for work performed in Montgomery County. Employers with five (5) or more employees must provide each employee with sick/safe leave at a rate of one (1) hour for every 30 hours an employee works in the County up to a maximum of 56 hours of earned sick/safe leave in a calendar year. Employers can cap employee use of sick/safe leave at 80 hours per calendar year.
Small employers get a bit of a break. An employer with fewer than five (5) employees must provide each employee with paid and unpaid sick/safe leave at a rate of at least one (1) hour for every 30 hours an employee works in the County. These employers, however, are not required to allow an employee to earn more than 32 hours of paid earned sick/safe leave and 24 hours of unpaid safe/sick leave in a calendar year, or use more than 80 hours of earned sick/safe leave in a calendar year.
Employers may award sick/safe leave as it accrues or may award the full amount at the beginning of each calendar year. If the employer requires employees to accrue the leave, the employer must permit an employee to carry the balance of unused sick/safe leave over to the next calendar year, however, the employer is not required to permit employees to carry over more than 56 hours of unused sick/safe leave.
Employees who regularly work eight (8) hours or less per week and independent contractors are not covered by the law.
An employer may require that the leave be taken in up to four (4) hour increments. However the leave is used, pay for use of sick/safe leave must be at the same rate as the employee normally receives. Tipped employees must be paid at least the minimum wage for each hour of sick/safe leave used.
Employees can use the sick/safe leave to care for the employee’s or employee’s family member’s illness/injury or preventative care. The leave can also be used for obtaining medical and legal services related to domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Employees wanting to use sick/safe leave must request leave as soon as practicable, notify their employer of the anticipated duration of leave, and comply with reasonable procedures established by employers.
Employers cannot require employees to disclose the specific details of the illness, injury, or condition or provide certification that would violate HIPAA. Employers, however, may require an employee who uses more than three (3) consecutive days of earned sick/safe leave to provide reasonable documentation to verify that the leave was used appropriately.
Here are some other aspects of the law:
- Employers must notify employees of the sick/safe leave requirement. The notice must include a statement of how sick/safe leave is accrued, the permitted uses of the sick/safe leave, a statement that retaliation is prohibited, and information about an employee’s rights to file a complaint for violation of sick/safe leave rights.
- Employers may not retaliate against a person for reporting a violation of the sick/safe leave law or for taking advantage of the law.
- Any general paid leave system adopted by an employer is permitted so long as that system provides the sick/safe leave mandated by the law.
- An employer must reinstate unused leave if an employee returns in nine (9) months or less, unless the employee voluntarily left work without good cause.
- The law permits employers to prohibit use of accrued sick/safe leave during a 90 day probationary period, however, the employee must accrue leave during that time.
- Employers must include a sick/safe leave statement each time it pays wages.
Montgomery County estimates that it will cost the County approximately $630,000 to implement the law, plus an additional $150,000 or so to modify the County’s payroll system. The County anticipates that it will have to hire the equivalent of 18.5 new full-time employees to cover the work not performed by County employees taking advantage of the law (and one additional HR employee). The law is expected to add an annual $42 million dollar cost to County businesses.
Many individuals working in Montgomery County will use the leave granted to them by the law properly. But, of course, others won’t. Employees with tickets to opening day, or better yet to October baseball for the Orioles, might just feel a cold coming on. More information on the law is available here.