Bill > A4483

Introduced Session

This bill allows employees in long-term care facilities to earn paid sick leave. Current law requires employers to provide their employees with accumulated paid sick leave at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked. However, the requirement does not apply to per diem health care employees, other than certified homemaker-home health aides. The bill revises this exception to provide that long-term care facilities will also be required to provide their employees with accumulated paid sick leave. The paid sick leave will begin to accrue on the effective date of the bill, but long-term care facility employees will be credited with earned sick leave for any hours worked between March 9, 2020, which is the date the state of emergency and public health emergency were declared in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and the effective date of the bill. Long-term care facility employees will be entitled to begin using any accumulated sick leave on the effective date of the bill. The standard requirements for accrual and use of paid sick leave will apply to long-term care facility employees who commence employment after the effective date of the bill. In response to high numbers of nursing home resident deaths that resulted from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the State commissioned a study through Manatt Health to identify the causes of those deaths and identify strategies to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 and future outbreaks of communicable diseases on nursing home populations. Manatt Health issued a report that, among other items, cited the lack of paid sick leave as a contributing cause to the rapid spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes. Specifically, staff who were sick or experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 were forced to continue working, meaning they continued to report to the nursing home and interact with residents and other staff members, accelerating and exacerbating the spread of COVID-19 in the homes. The Manatt report expressly recommended, as part of the overall strategy to improve the conditions in nursing homes that contributed to the rapid and deadly spread of COVID-19, that nursing home staff be allowed to accumulate and use paid sick leave.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Linda Carter (D)*,  Yvonne Lopez (D)*,  Angela Mcknight (D)*,  Gordon Johnson (D),  Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D),  Shanique Speight (D),  Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D), 

Assembly Appropriations Hearing (19:00 8/24/2020 Due to the public health emergency, the State House Annex remain) (on 08/24/2020)

Official Document