An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 8 – Leaves And Absences

an employee to accrue more than 48 hours. In this scenario, the local ordinance would prevail. Some of the requirements of these local laws are set forth below. If any of the below local ordinances apply to your school please refer to the local ordinance for more information. The City of San Francisco has a sick leave ordinance that predates California’s Paid Sick Leave law, but it was amended effective January 1, 2017. 1064 The ordinance requires all employers, regardless of size, to provide sick leave of at least 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, starting the first day of employment. Moreover, employers may not limit the amount of accrued sick leave employees may use during the year. The ordinance does permit frontloading of sick leave as an alternative to the accrual method, but it is somewhat complex, and provides that employees must be able to accrue additional sick leave after the frontloading provided at the start of the year has been earned with the accrual at one hour for every 30 worked. Any unused sick time must be carried over to the subsequent year , and employers with 10 or more employees cannot implement an accrual cap of less than 72 hours. Sick leave can be used for worker’s own health, for medical appointments, or to care for family member’s (or one’s specific designated person if no spouse or domestic partner). The ordinance also requires employers to post a notice of employees’ rights under the ordinance in all languages spoken by at least 5% of the workforce. 1065 The City of Los Angeles has a sick leave ordinance that has been in effect since July 1, 2016 for employers with more than 25 employees, and since July 1, 2017, for employers with 25 or fewer employees. The ordinance provides that employers regardless of size are required to permit employees to use up to 48 hours of accrued sick leave each year. Similar to state law, under the ordinance, employees accrue no less than 1 hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked within the city with any unused sick time carried over to subsequent year, and employers cannot implement an accrual cap of less than 72 hours. According to the City of Los Angeles sick leave ordinance, even if an employer frontloads sick leave for the year, unused sick leave must still carry over from year to year, although a 72 hour cap may be implemented. The ordinance expands the definition of a person for whom sick leave can be used to include: “any individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.” The ordinance also requires employers to post a notice of employees’ rights under the ordinance. 1066 The City of San Diego’s sick leave ordinance went into effect in July of 2016, and further amendments to the ordinance went into effect in September of 2016. The ordinance provides that employers regardless of size are required to permit employees to use up to 40 hours of accrued sick leave each year. Similar to state law, under the ordinance, employees accrue no less than 1 hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked within the city with any unused sick time carried over to subsequent year, but employers cannot implement an accrual cap of less than 80 hours. The ordinance provides that employers may satisfy the accrual and carry over requirements if no less than forty hours of sick leave are awarded to an employee at the beginning of each benefit year. Employers are also required to post a notice of the ordinance published by the City. 1067 The City of Santa Monica’s paid sick leave ordinance, which took effect January 1, 2017, largely tracks California law, but provides that employers with more than 25 employees can implement

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