Credit…Jim Wilson/The New York Times
California will require companies to provide up to two weeks of additional paid sick leave to workers recovering from the coronavirus or caring for infected family members, according to an agreement announced Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers.
The agreement would reinstate a benefit decided by the state in 2021 and expired at the end of September. It was sought out by organized labor when the Omicron variant rose sharply, but employers turned it down, saying the benefit would be prohibitively expensive for them.
The state legislature is expected to expedite a bill to translate the agreement into law. If approved, the paid leave requirement would apply to eligible absences between January 1 and September 30 in companies with more than 25 employees. The bill would also restore some business tax credits to help businesses meet the cost of the extra paid time off.
“By extending sick leave to workers on the frontlines with Covid and supporting California businesses, we can help protect the health of our workforce while ensuring businesses and our economy can thrive,” Newsom said in a joint statement with the president Senate Team Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.
They added that lawmakers “will continue to work to address additional small business needs through the budget.”
The agreement also calls for funds to bolster coronavirus testing and vaccinations in the state and combat misinformation, they said.
California law requires employers to offer at least three paid sick days per year. When the pandemic hit, the state raised this requirement and used state and federal laws and tax credits to add up to 80 hours of paid sick leave for workers who were infected or caring for infected relatives.
That extension was phased out on September 30 after the state reopened, but the emergence of new cases led to calls from unions to reintroduce it. Companies struggling with staffing shortages protested that the eligibility threshold for paid time off was too loose and that allowing more paid sick leave discouraged some from getting vaccinated.
Legislative officials said the new version, if passed, would require employers to offer full-time workers up to 40 hours of paid sick leave, and extend that for an additional 40 hours if the worker provides proof of a positive coronavirus test result. The requirement for part-time workers would first be the number of hours the worker normally worked in a week, and then the same amount again if the worker tests positive.
California union leaders welcomed the agreement.
“UFCW members have risked their lives and the lives of their family members” by reporting to work during the pandemic, Andrea Zinder, president of the Western States Council of the United Food and Commercial Workers, said in a statement.
Rheannon Ramos, a grocery store associate at Stater Bros. in Southern California, added that “the last two years have been filled with new stress after new stress, and today’s announcement is a real relief to shoulder those worries.”
source https://www.bisayanews.com/2022/01/26/covid-news-n-y-mask-policy-remains-in-effect-after-judge-issues-stay/
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