The Families First Coronavirus Response Act
U.S. Department of Labor Enforcement is Increasing

On March 18, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act which had an effective date of April 2, 2020. The law had a mandatory waiting period of 30 days before the Department of Labor could begin enforcement activities. That waiting period expired on April 18, 2020. Since that date, the DOL has become quite active in prosecuting cases of non compliance against businesses.

The law requires private and certain public employers who have less than 500 employees to provide paid sick leave and paid family leave to employees who are not able to work due to various COVID-19 reasons. Employers must also post in their organization a new employee rights poster which explains these benefits to all employees.

On its website, the DOL recently announced numerous enforcement actions stemming from employers who failed to pay the required FFCRA leave, denying employees’ use of FFCRA leave or even firing employees for attempting to use FFCRA leave. The penalty amounts range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. A few of these actions are listed below:

• A company in Arizona had to pay an employee who qualified for paid sick leave when the employee’s doctor instructed him to self quarantine.
• A company in California had to pay an employee who qualified for paid sick leave when the employee had instructions from a doctor to self quarantine while waiting for the COVID-19 test results of a family member.
• A company in Texas had to pay an employee who qualified for a paid sick leave when the individual was hospitalized for a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
• A company in Indiana had to pay an employee who qualified for paid sick leave when the employee was experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking a medical diagnosis.
• A company in Hawaii had to pay an employee who qualified for paid sick leave when the employee had to care for a child whose school had closed due to COVID-19.
• A government agency in California had to pay an employee who qualified for paid sick leave for the time that the employee spent at home caring for her child whose school had closed due to COVID-19.
• A company in Georgia had to pay an employee who qualified for paid sick leave due to a healthcare provider’s recommendation that the employee self quarantine while waiting for COVID-19 teat results.
• A company in Maryland had to reinstate an employee after the DOL determined that the employer denied paid sick leave and wrongly terminated the individual when the employee had to take care of their child due to a COVID-19 school closure.
• A nonprofit company in Florida had to pay an employee after the DOL determined that the employer wrongly forced the employee to utilize accrued personal sick leave due to self quarantining, rather than the emergency paid sick leave provided under the FFCRA. The employer also had to reinstate the employee’s personal sick leave.

As shown above, the DOL has become increasingly active in enforcing violations of the FFCRA. Therefore, employers should carefully evaluate each request for either emergency paid sick leave or emergency family and medical leave under the provisions of the FFCRA.

A company’s best defense against the potential expense and aggravation related to federal or state law violations is to proactively review and revise as needed all Human Resources policies, handbooks, hiring procedures, compensation, benefits, training programs, communications tools and other functions. The professionals of PHHR are ready to assist your organization with this type of training as well as to maintain compliance with the latest state and federal mandates.

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Paul Hilton is a certified Human Resources Consultant, located in Columbia, SC.
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