The FFCRA (Families First Coronavirus Reposnse Act) provision for providing emergency sick and family leave was scheduled to expire on December 31, 2020.
However, the recent stimulus bill passed by Congress allows employers to voluntarily give these paid leaves through March 31, 2021. The mandate to provide the leave still ends on December 31.
If an employer voluntarily provides paid leave to employees after December 31, as if the EPSLA and/or the EFMLEA were still in effect, then the federal government will provide tax credits/refunds to the employer just as it has done these last nine months.
The National Law Review posted some reminders on paying out these sick leave wages.
There has been no provision to expand the amount of leave taken. If an employee has already used their allowed sick or family leave hours, no additional time is provided with the voluntary extension.
What does this mean for employers under the California Covid Sick Leave law?
The California Covid Paid Sick Leave Law was to written to expire on December 31, 2020 or upon the expiration of any federal extension of the FFCRA, whichever is later.
We have not seen any documentation whether the voluntary extension of the FFCRA sick & family leave officially extends the California Covid Leave law. We will update this post if there is any new information released from the state. Just like the Federal law, if the California Covid Leave is extended, the allowed leave time per employee has not changed.
You can find a helpful chart of the Federal and State leave laws here.