REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
March 4, 2021
FROM: JEFF CARDELL, Director
Personnel Services Department
SUBJECT
Title
*** Approve a Resolution providing 2021 COVID-19 Supplemental Leave time to City employees effective January 1, 2021. (Subject to Mayor's Veto)
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends approval of this Resolution providing 2021 Supplemental COVID-19 Leave (2021 COVID-19 Leave) because it will enable employees under mandatory quarantine, or who need leave for other COVID-19 related reasons, or who experience COVID-19 vaccine-related side effects, to take leave from work without having to expend their own leave time, or else having to take leave without pay.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The proposed Resolution will allow City employees to use any remaining, unused Emergency Paid Sick Leave, previously provided by federal law, for 2021 COVID-19 Leave, for qualifying reasons from January 1, 2021, through March 31, 2021. The proposed Resolution also allows City employees to use the proposed leave for COVID-19 vaccine-related side effects. Employees having exhausted their maximum supplemental leave will be eligible for up to three additional working days of paid leave if the employee experiences COVID-19 vaccine-related side effects that prevent them from working.
BACKGROUND
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) provided up to eighty (80) hours of paid, or partially paid, Emergency Paid Sick Leave time for employees needing to take leave from work for COVID-19 related reasons from April 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020. These provisions of the FFCRA sunset on December 31, 2020, and to date have not been extended.
FFCRA provided this leave could be used for the employee's own illness or quarantine, or the illness or quarantine of a family member. Employees could also use this leave if a dependent child's school or place of care was closed due to COVID-19. Under the FFCRA, Emergency Paid Sick Leave was paid by the employer, and the ...
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