With Mandatory Paid Leave Gaining Ground, Is It Time to Do Away with Your PTO and Go Back to a Sick/Vacation Time Off Program?

OVERVIEW

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia now require employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees. In addition, 26 municipalities require employees to receive paid sick leave and 12 states are considering passing laws soon. A Federal Law requiring paid sick leave seems to be getting closer to becoming a reality.

Do you have a Federal Contract? If so, you are required to have a sick leave policy.

Do you have a contract with a municipality? If so, have you checked the fine print to see if you have to offer paid sick leave to your employees?

Every Law is Different

One thing to know is that every state and municipal law requiring mandatory paid sick leave is different. Trying to comply with all of them is causing much confusion. For example, Vermont requires paid sick leave to be offered after one year of service while others require it after 90 or 120 days. Colorado and New York require sick leave to be paid as it accrues. Most require you to offer paid sick leave to part-time employees. Others require it of all employees – even those who work on an on-call basis.

Is Your PTO Plan Obsolete?

PTO or a Paid Time Off program that combined vacation and sick leave into one bucket of time off was the trend for many years. With the passage of these laws, many organizations are doing away with their PTO as many states require payment of unused PTO upon termination. However, the same states do not require payment of unused sick leave. Organizations can maintain their PTO Plans, but at what cost? One company saved over $1 million in termination payments by changing from a PTO plan to a sick/vacation plan in California.

In this webinar, we will be reviewing mandatory paid sick leave laws in place now, review many of the differences and go over how to transition from a Sick/Vacation policy to a PTO policy as well as making the transition from a PTO plan to a Sick/Vacation plan.

WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND?

• With the above-described legislation, changes must be made to time off policies in those areas in which you have employees.
• Multi-state employers need to know what the compliance requirements are. Compliance is difficult since each state and municipality has different rules for accrual and use of sick leave.
• Under mandatory paid sick leave, abuse can become a huge problem. How will your organization deal with it?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Gaining an understanding of the various states and municipalities mandating paid sick leave
• Understanding the good points and not-so-good points about both types of paid leave
• Learning how to do a cost-benefit analysis to determine the best time of program for your organization
• Learn what to look for when planning the change.
• Effectively communicating change that is critical to the success of the change in your program.
• Develop a plan of action to ensure all bases are covered.

AREAS COVERED

• Current Mandatory Paid Sick Leave Laws are in place.
• A review of pending legislation.
• A review of the different Mandatory Paid Sick Leave Requirements
• Examples of the Quandary of Compliance
• A comparison of PTO policies vs. Sick/Vacation
• Conducting a cost-benefit analysis for both plans
• Planning for change
• Communication of the change
• Action Items for Participants

TOPIC BACKGROUND

What happens when an employee runs out of PTO and gets sick? There is no federal law requiring employers to provide sick leave, paid or unpaid. As an employer, you are only required to provide the amount of PTO that you agreed to provide in the employment contract or agreement.

If you do grant PTO, and an employee uses all of their PTO, you are not required to pay for any additional time taken off for sickness, health-related issues, or any other reason.

What are the state-specific laws concerning PTO?

Be sure to check with your state’s specific laws to ensure compliance. Michigan, for example, does not have any specific state laws concerning PTO. Your state-specific Department of Labor website should have the most up-to-date paid leave requirements.