Am I Entitled to Paid Sick Time For Side Effects From My COVID Vaccine?

Many employers are mandating vaccines for employees returning to work. But are they required to pay you for the time you take off work to get the vaccine and for any side effects? Most likely not, but there are some jobs and some states where you might be entitled to this.

In general, there is no law requiring any sick leave in my home state of Florida, much less paid sick leave. Other states, like New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and California, offer some protections for certain employees so keep an eye on those state laws. 

If you are a federal employee you may be protected under the American Rescue Plan Act. That law provides paid leave for up to 600 hours of leave for federal employees who are suffering side effects from the vaccine, under quarantine, caring for someone under quarantine, and even for getting the vaccine.

For employees of other employers, they ceased being required to give you paid leave for COVID-related illnesses under The Families First Coronavirus Response Act as of December 31, 2020. However, for small and midsize companies, if they choose to give employees paid leave for up to 10 days, which includes leave for vaccine side effects, they get a tax credit. So it makes sense for employers to offer this. Still, it's voluntary. 

Family and Medical Leave applies if you’ve been employed at least a year and they have at least 50 employees within 75 miles of your work location. However, for you to have a qualified serious health condition as required for protected leave, you had to be incapacitated for 3 days and visit a doctor at least once. Most folks have side effects for only 2 days or less, so this probably doesn’t apply to you. If it does, you were entitled to up to 12 weeks of leave, and your employer had to restore you to the same or an equivalent position and cannot hold that leave against you.

If you are in a unionized workplace, the collective bargaining agreement should protect you from being punished for being out sick. Just make sure you do everything required of you when you call out.

 If the company offers sick leave, they should allow you to use it for this purpose. If they required a vaccination for you to return to the workplace, then they should also understand that side effects for a couple days are expected.

Even if they don’t voluntarily offer sick leave for this, punishing employees who are doing the right thing by getting vaccinated is a jerk move. Employers should really consider how their policies affect morale and workplace health and safety. If you are sick from the vaccine, I suggest following the employer’s sick leave policy and making sure you call out timely. Read your handbook if they have one and make sure you follow all the requirements for calling out sick so you don’t give them an excuse to punish you.

New Paid Sick Leave And Family Leave Law For Coronavirus

Well, bowl me over. Finally, a somewhat pro-employee law is signed into law, and all it took was a global pandemic. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (P.L. 116-127) became law on March 18, 2020.

Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion: If you are unable to work (or telework) due to a need for leave to care for your son or daughter under 18 years of age if the school or place of care has been closed, or the child care provider of such son or daughter is unavailable, and your employer has fewer than 500 employees or is a public agency, and you've worked at least 30 calendar days for the employer, then you qualify for up to 12 weeks of FMLA, and your job is legally protected. 

Now don't get me started on why Amazon is exempt and tiny businesses aren't. That's the power of lobbying. But hey, at least it's a start. 

You still have regular FMLA if you need to care for a sick family member, which applies to employers with 50 or more employees in a 75 mile radius of your location and you've worked at least a year. 

Unlike regular FMLA, they have to pay you, not less than two-thirds of your regular pay, up to $200/day and a maximum of $10,000 total. The first 10 days taken may be unpaid, but you may use other paid leave during that period, such as accrued vacation leave, personal leave, or medical or sick leave for unpaid leave. 

Which brings us to . . .

Emergency Paid Sick Leave:  You are entitled to up to two weeks of paid sick leave if you are unable to work or telework because of:

• a quarantine or isolation order
• have been advised by a healthcare provider to self-quarantine
• have symptoms and are seeking a diagnosis

For the above, you get your regular pay up to $511/day and $5,110 maximum.

• are caring for someone with any of the above, are caring for a son or daughter if the school or place of care of the son or daughter has been closed or the child care provider of your son or daughter is unavailable due to COVID-19 precautionsor, or
• if you are experiencing any other "substantially similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor."

For these, you get two-thirds of your regular pay, up to $200/day and $2,000 maximum.

This applies, again, if your employer has fewer than 500 employees or is a public agency, but there's no minimum period of employment.

Your employer can't demand you find a replacement, they can't make you use other sick or vacation time, and they can't discharge, discipline, or take other discriminatory action against you for taking this leave.

Caveats

If your employer is a health care provider or an emergency responder, they don't have to comply with any of this if they don't want to. The exemption is automatic for the paid sick leave and will be subject to a regulation exempting them for the FMLA. Employers with under 50 employees may also be exempt from the sick leave under some circumstances.

There may be more coming down the road. Some states are enacting more protections. And the federal government is allowing states to expand unemployment compensation at the federal government's expense. Of course, Florida has done nothing so far to help employees. But hey, miracles happen, as is evidenced by this new law. 

Stay safe and stay home if you can!

Cities Step Up Worker Protections - Has Yours?

The United States is way behind most other western nations in protecting its workers. While Congress has dropped into paralysis, U.S. cities have stepped in where Congress and the states have failed to protect working Americans. Florida is one of the most anti-employee states in the nation. The cities here could do much to help working people if they had the political will.

Here are some examples of how cities are stepping up to help workers:

Intern sexual harassment: New York City, along with Washington, D.C., Delaware, and Oregon, have laws against sexually harassing unpaid interns. There is not a single federal law banning intern sexual harassment. Title VII doesn’t cover it because they aren’t “employees.” Same with most state laws including Florida. So, yay for sexual harassers. High school and college students are fair game.

Paid sick leave: San Francisco, Oakland, Emeryville, Los Angeles, Berkeley and San Diego; Washington, D.C.; New York City; Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane; Philadelphia; Montgomery County (Md.); Chicago and Cook County; St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth); Newark, Jersey City, Irvington, Passaic, East Orange, Paterson, Trenton, Montclair, Bloomfield, New Brunswick, Elizabeth, Plainfield and Morristown; and Austin all have some form of paid sick leave. Eleven states including California provide some form of paid sick leave. Not Florida, of course.

Paid safe days: The cities that provide paid "safe" days, giving time for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking to seek services include: San Francisco, Emeryville, San Diego, Los Angeles, Berkeley and Santa Monica; Washington, D.C.; Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane; Philadelphia; Montgomery County (Md.); Chicago and Cook County; Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth; New Brunswick; and Austin.

Salary history: 13 states and 11 cities have banned employers from asking about salary history. The reason behind the legislation is that basing pay on prior salary can lock in pay discrimination. The sponsor of the Philadelphia ordinance explained: “Simply put, when a woman is paid less at the beginning of her career she will continue to earn less throughout her career. By eliminating the question of salary history we will be one step closer to decreasing the wage gap.”

Ban the box:  33 states and over 150 cities and counties have adopted “ban the box” laws. These laws generally prevent employers from asking about applicant arrests or convictions at the beginning of the application process, and only allow inquiries after the applicant passes their initial screening. Why? Because about 70 million Americans have some criminal record, and the majority of them are minorities. An entire class of citizens has been made almost completely unemployable due to criminal records that have nothing to do with their ability to do jobs.

Predictable schedules: San Francisco, Emeryville, San Jose, Chicago, New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C. have ordinances requiring that employers give specified advance notice of work schedules, advance notice of shift cancellations, and/or predictability pay for last minute cancellations. Oregon is the first state to enact such a law.

Paid family leave: 35 cities/counties and 11 states have paid parental leave laws.

Right to vacation: New York City would require most employers to offer 10 days of paid vacation to employees under this proposed ordinance

Firing for just cause: This proposed law would prevent employers in New York from firing on a whim.

Minimum wage: Florida’s legislature has prohibited local ordinances raising minimum wage, and that was just upheld. Sad. Many other cities around the nation have raised minimum wage for their workers.

Some cities that have led the way on employee rights are San Francisco, New York, A list of San Francisco’s very pro-employee ordinances is here. New York’s employee rights page is here.

So talk to your local elected officials about stepping up to help working people. If the state and federal governments won’t help workers, it will be up to the cities to protect them.

Florida Democrats Take Another Swing At Pro-Employee Legislation (That Won't Pass)

Another legislative session coming up, some more pro-employee legislation that will not pass. But here’s what some Florida Democrats (okay, I didn’t check them all, but c’mon, what are the odds that any of the co-sponsors of any pro-employee laws are Republicans?) are trying to pass in 2016 to help Florida employees:

$15 minimum wage: SB 6 and HB 109 would raise Florida’s minimum wage to $15/hour

ERA: SCR 74 and HCR 8001 would ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Better late than never.

Sexual Orientation: SB 120 and HB 45would add sexual orientation and gender identity to prohibited categories of discrimination in the workplace.

Social Media Privacy: SB 186 would prohibit employers from demanding your social media passwords.

Unemployment and Domestic Violence: SB 188 protects employees who leave or lose jobs due to domestic violence from being disqualified for unemployment benefits.

Paid Sick Leave: SB 294 and HB 205 would require state and local governments with at least 9 employees to provide paid sick leave to employees. Why only government employers? I'm really not sure that's what the sponsors meant to do, but that's what it says employers are.

Paid Family Leave: SB 384 and HB 603 would require employers to provide paid leave similar to FMLA for birth or adoption of a child and care in the first year, but it applies to employees who work at least 20 hours a week, applies to employers with at least 15 employees, and would permit up to 6 weeks of protected leave. Creates a rebuttable presumption that any demotion or discharge taken within 90 days against an employee who takes leave is a violation.

Ban the Box: SB 448 and HB 353 would prohibit employers from asking about criminal history in initial employment applications.

If you support any of these bills, start calling and writing your legislators now. Especially the Republicans. If any of these proposed laws get overwhelming support, they may just have a chance. My prediction: DOA.

States With Pro-Employee Laws: Paid Sick Leave

Or, States That Don't Suck For Employees, Part IV

Oh, sure, if you're lucky enough to qualify for Family and Medical Leave, you may or may not get some paid time off if you have a serious medical condition. You're paid under that law if you have any paid sick leave or vacation time, and then the rest of the leave is unpaid. However, whether or not you get any paid sick time is up to your employer.

That is, unless you live in a state beginning with the letter C.

California became the second state in the nation to mandate paid sick leave under the law signed this week. Most employees will accrue three paid sick days per year, at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked. San Francisco and San Diego already had a mandatory paid sick leave ordinance in place.

Connecticut was the first state to mandate sick leave. Employers with 50 or more employees, unless they are non-profits, must provide 1 hour of sick leave per 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours per year of paid sick time to service workers.

Massachusetts may break the C trend because voters there will get to approve a paid sick leave law when they vote in November.

Five cities in New Jersey have paid sick leave ordinances. So have two cities in Oregon. New York City has a paid sick leave law, along with Seattle and Washington, D.C.

The U.S. is the only major Western country without any law requiring paid sick leave for employees. Of 22 countries studied, we are the only country that provides zero paid sick leave for a worker undergoing a 50-day cancer treatment and we're 1 of only 3 countries that does not provide paid sick days for a worker missing 5 days of work due to the flu.

Making workers come to work sick is bad for everyone. It spreads illness and results in crappy morale. Hopefully more states (or even Congress) will wake up soon.