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San Antonio, Texas Passes Paid Sick and Safe Leave Law

10/01/18

Author: ADP Admin/Thursday, October 4, 2018/Categories: Texas

Overview: San Antonio, Texas has passed a paid sick and safe leave ordinance, which mirrors the ordinance passed earlier this year in Austin. However, whether this paid sick leave law ever takes effect is very much uncertain. Austin’s paid sick leave law is facing its own legal challenges and has been placed on hold. Depending on the outcome, it could impact San Antonio’s ordinance.

Effective Date: San Antonio’s ordinance is scheduled to generally take effect on August 1, 2019, although for employers with five or fewer employees in the preceding 12 months, compliance obligations are delayed until August 1, 2021.

Details:

Covered Employers
The law covers all private employers.

Covered Employees
A covered employee means an individual who performs at least 80 hours of paid work for an employer within the City of San Antonio in a calendar year. This includes work performed through the services of a temporary or employment agency. Covered employee does not include an individual who is an independent contractor or unpaid intern. The ordinance applies to employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and only one provision in the law – accrual caps – may be partially waived via a CBA.

Accrual, Use Accrual and Frontloading
Employees will accrue one hour of earned sick time for every 30 hours worked for an employer in San Antonio. Earned sick time will accrue only in hour-unit increments. Employees cannot accrue a fraction of an hour of earned sick time.
  • Employers who employed more than 15 employees at any time within the preceding 12 months must provide employees with up to 64 hours of earned sick time a year.
  • Employers who employed 15 or fewer employees at any time within the preceding 12 months must provide employees with up to 48 hours of earned sick time a year.

Important Note: San Antonio defines a year as a regular and consecutive 12-month period determined by an employer. In addition, employers and labor organizations may expressly agree in a valid, written CBA to modify the accrual cap.

Employers are not required to allow employees to:
  • Use earned sick time during their first 60 days of employment if the employer establishes that the term of employment is at least one year.
  • Use more than 64 hours of earned sick leave per year.

Flat Amount (Frontloading) – At the beginning of each year, an employer may award an employee the full amount of earned sick time that would accrue over the course of the year rather than awarding the leave as it accrues throughout the year.

Carryover Limit
All available earned sick time (up to the yearly cap) will be carried over to the following year. If an employer frontloads at least the yearly cap of earned sick time, they are not required to allow the carryover of earned sick time.
An employee who is let go or leaves a position and is rehired by the same employer within 6 months may use any earned sick leave that was available at the time of their departure.

Using Leave
Leave can be used for absences due to an employee or family member’s illness, injury, or health condition, including preventive care. If an employee or family member is a victim of stalking, domestic abuse, or sexual assault, leave can also be used for medical reasons, to relocate, to obtain services from a victim services organization, and to participate in legal proceedings. To use leave, employees must make a timely request before their scheduled work time. Under the law, if employees are absent for more than three consecutive work days, employers can request that they provide verification to demonstrate leave was taken for a covered purpose, but an employer cannot require an employee to explain the nature of the illness, injury, health condition, domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking.

Rate of Pay Requirements
When paying employees for time taken under San Antonio’s earned sick leave provision, employers must pay earned sick time in an amount equal to what the employee would have earned if the employee had worked the scheduled work time, exclusive of any overtime premium, tips or commissions, but no less than the state minimum wage.

Notice Requirements
An employer that provides an employee handbook to its employees must include a notice of employee rights and remedies under the Earned Sick Time chapter of the employee handbook. An employer should display a sign describing the requirements of the Earned Sick Time chapter in English (and any other languages the city may eventually require) in a conspicuous place or places where employee notices are typically posted.

Pay Statement Requirements and Record Keeping
At least once per month, employers must provide each employee with an electronic or written statement showing the amount of the employee’s available earned sick time. The law requires employers to maintain records concerning an employee’s accrued and used leave

Prohibitions & Penalties
Employers may not retaliate against employees for requesting or using earned sick time, reporting a violation, or for exercising their right to paid sick leave in accordance with the ordinance.

The ordinance will be enforced by the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District. Employees do not have a private right of action. Complaints must be filed with the District by or on behalf of an aggrieved employee within two years from the date of the violation. A civil penalty of up to $500 applies for each violation.

Action Required: Given the future of the San Antonio law is uncertain and the fact there is almost one year until the law is scheduled to take effect, employers with operations in the city should monitor developments in Texas and watch for additional communications before expending time and resources developing new policies and procedures at this time.

As always, please be sure to contact your HR Business Partner if you have any questions.

This content provides practical information concerning the subject matter covered and is provided with the understanding that ADP is not rendering legal advice.

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Tags: Compliance Corner10/01/18State Update

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