Labor & Employment Newsletter

New Required Poster for COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave

By Jennifer A. Mancera, Labor & Employment Attorney

The California Labor Commissioner has released a required posting related to California's new COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Law for food sector workers.

Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order N-51-20 established mandatory COVID-19 supplemental sick leave for employers with 500 or more employees who are covered by the Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders 3, 8, 13 and 14, and Health & Safety Code section 113789.

The COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave only applies to food sector workers (such as farmworkers, agricultural workers and those working in grocery stores and fast food chains), and delivery network companies/drivers.

Employees covered under the order are entitled to take supplemental sick leave if they’re unable to work because they are:

  1. Subject to a federal, state or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;
  2. Advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine or self-isolate due to concerns related to COVID-19; or
  3. Prohibited from working by the “Food Sector Worker’s Hiring Entity” due to health concerns related to the potential transmission of COVID-19.

The leave must be made available upon the employee’s oral or written request and be paid out at a rate equal to the highest of either the worker’s regular rate of pay for the last pay period, state minimum wage, or local minimum wage.  Payments for the supplemental sick leave may not exceed $511 per day and $5,110 in total.

The COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave benefit is in addition to the three days of paid sick leave already required under California’s Health Families Healthy Workplace sick leave law.

The order also includes a new notice requirement: The Labor Commissioner has issued a model notice, which must be posted in a conspicuous location.  Employers with food sector workers who don’t frequent the workplace may distribute the notice by electronic means, such as via e-mail.

This article is intended to address topics of general interest and should not be construed as legal advice.

© 2020 Noland, Hamerly, Etienne & Hoss