COVID-19: Important Bargaining Updates for County of Santa Cruz Members

The FFCRA’s paid leave provisions are effective on April 1, 2020, and apply to leave taken between April 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. 

 The new legislation provides for two different benefits if you are unable to work or telework for reasons related to COVID-19. 

 A. Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion (EFMLA) – Provides up to 12 weeks of leave with partial pay if you are unable to work or telework because you are caring for a child or children under 18 who is home because of a school closure or childcare closure due to a public health emergency. 

• Leave is available to employees who have been employed for at least 30 calendar days. 
• The maximum amount of leave for FMLA per calendar year remains at 12 weeks. If an employee has already used 12 weeks of FMLA during 2020, the employee will not be eligible for an additional 12 weeks. 
• There is a 10 workday waiting period for benefits. An employee may use accrued paid leave balances during the wait period if they choose to do so. 
• On the eleventh workday, after exhausting the waiting period, employees are eligible for employer-paid leave at the rate of 2/3 of an employee’s regular rate of pay (i.e., base pay). 
• B. Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL) –Provides up to 80 hours of employer-paid sick leave for full-time employees and pro-rated for part-time employees based on regularly scheduled hours. Qualifying eligibility criteria is as follows: 

Eligibility for the regular rate of pay (i.e., base pay) 

• The employee is subject to Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation orders related to COVID-19. 
• Please note: state or local shelter in place order is not considered an order for quarantine or isolation. This leave is intended for people with likely exposure who have been directed as a result of federal, state, or local guidance to quarantine or self-isolate (e.g. arrived back from overseas travel and must quarantine or self-isolate.). 
• The employee has been advised or ordered by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to actual or potential exposure to COVID-19. 
• The employee is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis 

Eligibility for 2/3 of the employee’s regular rate of pay (i.e., base pay) 

• The employee is unable to work because they are caring for an individual who is subject to a Federal, State, or local quarantine or self-isolation order related to COVID-19 or has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19 or is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis. 
• The employee is caring for a child or children under 18 who is home because of a school closure or childcare closure due to a public health emergency. 
• The employee is experiencing any other substantially similar conditions specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor. 

• If you are continuing to perform your essential job functions, assigned training/special projects, or assigned emergency duties, even if remotely for your regularly scheduled hours, then you will continue to receive your regular pay and are not eligible for these benefits. 
• If you are working only reduced hours due to one of the qualifying conditions, then you may be eligible for benefits for the time you are not working. 

• If you are an active extra help employee as of 4/1/2020 you will qualify for EPSL (Emergency Paid Sick Leave). 
• If you were on the County’s payroll (i.e., worked hours) for the 30 calendar days immediately prior to the day your leave would begin, you may qualify for EFMLA (Expanded Family and Medical Leave Act). 
• Any paid hours under EPSL and EFMLA do count towards the extra help limit of 999 hours per fiscal year. 

A “child” is defined by the FMLA regulations as a biological, adopted, or foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward, or a child of a person standing in loco parentis who is either under 18 years of age or is 18 years of age or older and “incapable of self-care because of a mental or physical disability” at the time FMLA leave is to commence. 

You are entitled to paid sick leave if you are unable to work or telework due to a qualifying reason related to COVID-19. You must provide documentation in support of the reasons for your paid sick leave. These documents may include a copy of the Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19 or written documentation by a health care provider advising you to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19, or the results of your COVID-19 test. Again, a state or local shelter in place order is not considered an order for quarantine or isolation. This leave is intended for people with likely exposure who have been directed by a healthcare provider to quarantine or self-isolate. 

You may be asked to provide documentation in support of your expanded family and medical leave taken to care for your child whose school or place of care is closed, or childcare provider is unavailable, due to COVID-19-related reasons. For example, this requirement may be satisfied with a notice of closure or unavailability from your child’s school, place of care, or child care provider, including a notice that may have been posted on a government, school, or daycare website, published in a newspaper, or emailed to you from an employee or official of the school, place of care, or child care provider. We must retain this notice or documentation in support of expanded family and medical leave, including while you may be taking unpaid leave that runs concurrently with paid sick leave if taken for the same reason. 

Intermittent leave must be agreed on by the employee’s department and will be established on a case-by-case basis. 

Yes.

• EPSL employer-paid hours are a type of supplemental benefit that will count towards accruals, county service hours, CalPers service credits, probationary status, differentials, or other similarly situated employment aspects. 
• EFMLA employer-paid hours are a type of supplemental benefit that will only count towards CalPERS service credits. 

No, you do not have to exhaust current paid leave balances before using EPSL or EFMLA benefits. 

You will be required to utilize your sick leave accruals for absences due to illness or injury unrelated to COVID-19. If it is a serious health condition, please contact your payroll clerk for our regular leave of absence forms. 

No.

If you qualify for both, yes. 

Yes.

You will receive additional information from payroll regarding pay codes for these categories. 

Yes.

No.

No.

Yes. The caps are based on the reasons for the leave or paid time. Staff will review these with you after a determination is made regarding eligibility. 

No.

• That depends. Eligibility for 8NE pay assumes that the employee is ready, willing, and able to work (either in their own job or as a Disaster Service Worker). If you are not able to work because of one of the EPSL or EFMLA qualifying reasons, then you should apply for that leave rather than remain on 8NE. 
• If you are receiving 8NE pay because you have been exempted from reporting to work due to your age or a chronic underlying medical condition, then it is not necessary for you to apply for leave under the EPSL or EFMLA. 

Yes. If the physical location where your child received instruction or care is now closed, the school or place of care is “closed” for purposes of paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave. This is true even if some or all instruction is being provided online or whether, through another format such as “distance learning,” your child is still expected to complete assignments. 

January 1, 2021 – March 31, 2021 

Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL) –Provides up to 80 hours of employer-paid sick leave for full-time employees and pro-rated for part-time employees based on regular scheduled hours. PLEASE NOTE: employees who have used all 80 hours of EPSL in 2020 do not receive an additional 80 hours in 2021. If employees have unused EPSL hours from 2020, they may apply to use the remaining hours in 2021. Qualifying eligibility criteria is as follows: 

Eligibility for the regular rate of pay (i.e., base pay): 

• Employee is subject to Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19. (Please note: state or local shelter in place order is not considered an order for quarantine or isolation. This leave is intended for people with likely exposure who have been directed as a result of federal, state, or local guidance to quarantine or self-isolate (e.g. arrived back from overseas travel and must quarantine or self-isolate.). 
• The employee has been advised or ordered by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to actual or potential exposure to COVID-19. 
• The employee is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis 

No. Article 36.4 of the MOU provides a $2.00/hour differential in addition to regular pay for all hours worked in lieu of all other benefits. EPSL is considered an employer-paid benefit. 

Any of the following will suffice to determine eligibility: 

• Proof of your pending COVID testing results. 
• Proof of your positive result. 
• A note from your health care provider. 

• Please complete the EPSL Extension application located here. 
• Make sure to attach the required documentation (as explained in FAQ #26). 
• If you are requesting your EPSL to go retro between January 1, 2021, and January 26, 2021, please make sure to provide the exact dates you were off and please attach copies of your time cards so we can verify the dates for the time card adjustments.