The California Division of Labor Standards & Enforcement (“DLSE”) has published additional FAQs regarding California’s new Paid Sick Leave law.  These FAQs, dated January 2015, can be found here.  Below is a summary of the DLSE’s FAQs:

• The Wage Theft Prevention Act Notice (“Notice”):  The new Paid Sick Leave law is clear that employees hired after January 1, 2015 are to be provided the State’s new Notice pursuant to Cal. Labor Code section 2810.5 at the time of hire.  Linked here is the State’s template Notice.  However, the law is unclear as to whether employers must issue the new notice to employees hired pre-January 1, 2015.  The supplemental FAQs address this issue as follows:

  • If the employer changes or institutes a new Paid Sick Leave policy, then employers must provide to employees hired prior to January 1, 2015 a new Notice within seven days of the change, or alternatively, provide individual notice to such employees using an alternative authorized method.   The FAQs do not specifically address what an authorized alternative method is.

  • If an employer makes no change to its paid sick leave policy, these FAQs indicate that employers must still provide a new Notice to their employees hired prior to January 1, 2015.  The FAQs are unclear as to when the Notice must be provided to such employees.

• Seasonal Employees:  The Paid Sick Leave law requires that an employee’s accrued sick leave be restored if the employee returns to the same employer within 12 months from the previous separation.  The law also allows employers to restrict usage of paid sick leave by employees until they have worked for 90 days for the employer.  The FAQs provide an exemplar of a seasonal employee and provision of paid sick leave.  In the exemplar, the employee works 60 days in year 1 and when the employee returns year 2, the DLSE confirms that the employee only must work another 30 days before being permitted to use accrued paid sick leave.

• Alternative Work Schedules:  The FAQs also address the issue of employees working an alternative workweek schedule, such as four ten-hour days, and how much paid sick leave they are provided under the new law, which requires employers to provide at least three days or 24 hours of paid time off.  The question has been asked whether such employees are provided 24 hour or 30 hours (representing three ten-hour days).  According to these FAQs, the answer is 30 hours.

• Part-Time Employees:  The FAQs also address how much paid sick leave part-time employees are required to be provided.  The FAQs set forth an exemplar of a part-time employee who works six hours per day.  The question is whether those employees are afforded 24 hours of paid sick leave or 18 hours.  According to these FAQs, the answer is 24 hours.