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Home » State Leaders Agree On New COVID-Related Paid Sick Leave Policy

State Leaders Agree On New COVID-Related Paid Sick Leave Policy

by CLAYCORD.com
10 comments

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislative leaders announced an agreement on a framework to extend pandemic-related sick leave through the end of September.

Newsom, Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Los Angeles, jointly announced the deal that would require businesses with more than 25 employees to provide at least 40 hours of COVID-specific paid sick leave to full-time workers that are sick or caring for another person who is sick.

Workers who present a positive COVID-19 test result would be eligible for an additional 40 hours of paid leave. The leave would also be retroactive to start of 2022.

“Throughout this pandemic, we have come together to address the immediate impacts COVID-19 continues to have on millions of California families, both at home and at work,” the three officials said in a statement. “By extending sick leave to frontline workers with COVID and providing support for California businesses, we can help protect the health of our workforce, while also ensuring that businesses and our economy are able to thrive.”

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While California employers are required to provide general paid sick leave to their workers, the state’s paid sick leave policy specifically for workers exposed to COVID-19 or those exhibiting symptoms expired Sept. 30 last year.

That paid leave policy, which Newsom signed into law in March 2021, required employers with more than 25 employees to provide an additional 80 hours of paid leave, ensuring workers could avoid working when sick.

Labor officials, who had pushed for the reinstatement of COVID-specific paid sick leave in recent weeks, lauded the deal as a necessity to protect workers like those in the service industry who are exposed to large numbers of potentially infectious people each day.

“We spoke up about the impossible choices we faced without enough sick time to recover from COVID-19 without our kids going hungry,” Service Employees International Union California President Bob Schoonover said in a statement. “We know we can’t wait for employers to keep us safe — we have to advocate for ourselves, and Governor Newsom and legislators listened.”

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The state’s teachers’ union also celebrated the agreement, noting that the recent surge of cases tied to the highly transmissible omicron variant led to thousands of educators and students across the state testing positive.

“This has put undue pressure on teachers and school employees faced with having to choose between going without pay or spreading the virus to their school communities,” California Teachers Association E. Toby Boyd said in a statement. “This leave will allow school employees to quarantine, recover, and return to their students and classrooms.”

State legislators are expected to fast-track the paid leave policy to Newsom’s desk in the coming weeks, well before they approve the overall state budget in June.

10 comments


Cellophane January 26, 2022 - 8:23 AM - 8:23 AM

No government should ever be allowed to have this much control over any business.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a good or bad policy, I believe that it’s not within the government’s authority to dictate such policies.

This is costly to businesses and can potentially increase inflation.

The government can’t even manage itself, how can anyone expect it to make any decisions business.

Cyn January 26, 2022 - 11:02 AM - 11:02 AM

@Cellophane
You’re exactly right. The government doesn’t have total control yet.

reekorizzo January 26, 2022 - 8:54 AM - 8:54 AM

GIMME MAH MUNNY!!!!!!!!!!

Sancho Panza January 26, 2022 - 9:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Does this mean that healthcare workers are exempted from this paid sick time leave since they are obligated to go back to the trenches having tested positive and asymptomatic? Oh, the caste system being created by the politicians…

JRocks January 26, 2022 - 9:11 AM - 9:11 AM

Spending other people’s money is so easy.

Dawg January 26, 2022 - 9:41 AM - 9:41 AM

Yesterday “they,” and when I say “they” I mean every so-called coronavirus expert, said health care workers in Contra Costa County can return to work if they are asymptomatic with COVID. Today, “they” are saying anybody who has COVID is entitled to 40 hours paid sick leave, and anybody that presents a positive COVID test result, will be entitled to an additional 40 hours of paid sick leave. That means they get 80 hours, why the extra 40 hours? I thought quarantine was five days.
How do you know when “they” are lying? When “they” open their mouth.

miguel January 26, 2022 - 10:54 AM - 10:54 AM

The old policy expired September 30, this would be retroactive to the start of 2022, are workers who got sick between October 1 and New Year’s Eve still eligible? Curious for thousands of employers who will be on the hook again to bleed out more money that hasn’t been recovered with restrictions and decreased business levels.

WC---Creeker January 26, 2022 - 1:28 PM - 1:28 PM

Can we do this for the flu also?

sideline January 26, 2022 - 3:26 PM - 3:26 PM

Why?

Absolutely NOTHING makes sense with this.

Somebody LOVES to be in control.

Franklin January 26, 2022 - 8:43 PM - 8:43 PM

Arguing on the internet has never benefited anyone, nor has it broadened narrow minds who are exquisitely uninterested in other points of view or experiences, yet here I go. Are there users and abusers? Sure. But I deal with financial hardships for a living and I can promise you that this kind of protection could literally save lives. First off, sick people with no sick time tend to come to work and get others sick. Secondly, I have a coworker who just spent a month in the hospital and exhausted every ounce of sick time they had just to come home to the need for physical therapy and the inability to work a full 8 hours. There’s always an upside and a downside to everything, and a cost for doing something or doing noting. Naturally there should be agreement and disagreement. None of that surprises me, but I get a little less hopeful for all of us every time I see vitriol like this and it reminds me why I have no business in the comments section.


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