With kids going back to school, new questions regarding eligibility for paid leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) are cropping up. Thankfully, the Department of Labor (DOL) recently supplemented its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to answer some of the questions that have arisen thus far.
FFCRA recap
The FFCRA, which remains in effect until December 31, 2020, requires employers to provide all employees with two weeks (up to 80 hours) of paid sick leave for one of the specified reasons related to COVID-19. Relevant here is that the employee is entitled to two weeks of paid sick leave at two-thirds the regular rate of pay when the employee is unable to work due to a bona fide need to care for a child (under 18 years of age) whose school or child care provider is closed or unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19. However, employees may take up to two weeks of paid sick leave for any combination of qualifying reasons, so tracking leave and the reason(s) for same is key.
If the employee has been employed for at least 30 days, the employer must provide up to an additional 10 weeks of paid expanded family and medical leave for the same reason. Time taken under the expanded leave provision counts against the employee’s entitlement to 12 weeks of Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave in a 12-month period, so if the employee has already exhausted FMLA leave in that period, the employee is not entitled to additional leave under the expanded family and medical leave of the FFCRA.
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