5 tips for managing FMLA leave and PTO in the post-COVID-19 landscape

Abstract

The state's Supplemental Paid Sick Leave law provides covered employees with 80 hours of paid leave for qualifying COVID-19-related reasons. California's Supplemental Paid Sick Leave law, enacted in February and later extended through the end of 2022, provides covered employees with 80 hours of paid leave for qualifying COVID-19-related reasons. The law specifies that an employer may not require employees to use any other paid or unpaid leave, PTO or vacation time before the employee uses the supplemental paid sick leave or in lieu of that leave. An employee who qualifies for the federal, 12-week FMLA leave may also qualify for the 20-week paid Massachusetts leave. "The compliance issues arise when employers take their eye off of the complete picture and they focus only on the FMLA issue, when it often is FMLA on top of a or disability benefit on top of an overlapping state leave law." Moreover, the trend is that more and more states are enacting such laws, said Clabault, and each has its own set of stipulations that may or may not interact with the FMLA. "That just highlights that employers need to be aware." #3: Can a coronavirus-positive employee work from home? If so, the FMLA may not apply. Crucially, leave may one such an accommodation, and the exhaustion of FMLA may not have any bearing on whether an employee is entitled to additional leave under the ADA. In February, a trucking and property management company learned that lesson the hard way, settling with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $65,000 after the agency alleged the employer violated the ADA when it fired employees who were unable to return to work after 12 weeks of FMLA. Employers, Clabault added, may encounter more and more situations in which the ADA is implicated due to the effects of COVID-19, which can include long COVID-19 as well as other areas such as mental health. "Intermittent leave wreaks havoc on an employer's operation in a far greater manner than a particular leave of absence." #5: Avoid the 'weak link' in the FMLA compliance chain.