Employment & Labor Alert
(by Molly Meacham, Alexandra Farone and Chelsea Heinz)
This is a follow-up to Babst Calland’s client alert on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act provisions and related new leave requirements. The Department of Labor announced that the effective date will be April 1, 2020. The leave is not retroactive and begins April 1. Each company’s number of employees to determine whether it meets the 500-employee threshold will be calculated at the time the leave is to be taken. The Department of Labor released Question and Answer guidance available here, providing additional preliminary information on calculating the employee threshold, leave calculations, rate of pay calculations, and interactions with other types of leave. The full regulations have not yet been released, and are expected prior to the April 1 effective date.
The model notice issued by the Department of Labor is available here, and was issued along with a Frequently Asked Questions regarding the notice requirements available here. The notice does not need to be displayed until April 1, 2020 and most employers will want to wait to publish the notice until their FFCRA policy is ready to avoid employee confusion. The notice must be posted in a conspicuous place on the employer’s premises, which may include email, company intranet, or physically at the workplace depending upon current operations.
Please contact any of Babst Calland’s Employment and Labor attorneys if you need advice on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and its requirements.