How this headline may connect to industries in Virginia. Technical scores are below — click any ? for what a metric means.
Virginia Enacts Paid Sick Leave Law.Virginia enacted legislation ( House Bill 5 / Senate Bill 199 ) that will require nearly all private employers, as well as state and local governments, to provide paid sick leave to their employees.The timing of when this law goes into effect depends on employer size: Paid sick leave begins to accrue at the commencement of employment.All covered employees will accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.Paid sick leave carries over to the following year but an employee cannot accrue or use more than 40 hours of paid sick leave in a single year, unless the employer selects a higher limit.Employees who are exempt from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act are assumed to work 40 hours per workweek for purposes of accruing paid sick leave, unless their normal workweek is less than 40 hours.Employees who are compensated on a fee-for-service basis will accrue paid sick leave in accordance with regulations that the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry has been directed to promulgate by July 1, 2027.Employers can satisfy the accrual requirements of the law by electing to provide all paid sick leave that an employee is expected to accrue in a year at the beginning of the year.If an employer grants 40 hours of paid sick leave to an employee at the beginning of a year, they avoid having to carry over unused paid sick leave from one year to the next.An employer with a paid leave policy, such as a paid time off policy, that provides an employee an amount of paid leave sufficient to meet the requirements of the law and that can be used for the same purposes and under the same conditions as the law, is not required to provide additional paid sick leave to any employee who is eligible for paid leave under the employer’s policy.Under the law, employees transferred to other divisions, entities, or locations with the same employer, are entitled to maintain their paid sick leave accrual.An employee who separates from an employer and is rehired within 12 months by the same employer shall have all previously accrued, unused paid sick leave reinstated and can use it and any additional accrued paid sick leave at the recommencement of their employment.Successor employers are required to maintain the paid sick leave accruals of any employee who remains employed by them.The new law does not require employers to reimburse employees for any accrued but unused leave at the end of employment.The law does not apply or has limited application to: Use of and Rate of Pay for Paid Sick Leave The paid sick leave law requires employees to be compensated while on leave at their regular rate of pay as defined by Virginia Code.§ 40.1-29.3(B).The rate of pay for paid sick leave cannot be less than the Virginia minimum wage without reduction for any tip credit the employer could otherwise claim.Employees are permitted to use paid sick leave for the following reasons: Employees who wish to use paid sick leave must be permitted to do so upon request.Such requests may be made by any means acceptable to the employer and, “when possible,” must include the expected duration of the absence.When the use of leave is foreseeable, employees are required to make a good-faith effort to provide advance notice of the need for leave and to make a reasonable effort to schedule the use of paid sick leave in a manner that does not “unduly disrupt the operations of the employer.” An employer that requires notice of the need to use leave must provide its employees with a written policy explaining the procedures for its employees to provide the notice.An employer is prohibited from denying a paid sick leave request based on policy noncompliance if a copy of the written policy has not been provided to the employee.Employees who request paid leave cannot be required as a condition of taking leave to search for or find a replacement worker to cover the hours during which they are using the leave.Nor can an employer require an employee to work an alternative shift to make up for the use of the leave.Paid sick leave is used in hourly increments unless the employer allows it to be taken in smaller increments.Employers are prohibited from requiring that an employee disclose details of their or their family member’s health information or details of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking as a condition of providing paid sick leave.Any such information that an employer does have about the employee or a family member’s health, domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking must be treated as confidential and cannot be disclosed except to the employee or with the employee’s consent.If an employee takes or requests paid sick leave for three or more consecutive workdays, the employer may require reasonable documentation that the paid sick leave has been used for a purpose authorized by the statute.If the leave is being taken for an employee’s own health or that of an employee’s family member, documentation signed by a health care professional indicating that the paid sick leave is necessary is deemed reasonable documentation.If the paid sick leave is being used due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, the following documents shall be considered reasonable documentation: a police report; a court document indicating the employee is involved in legal action relating to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking; documentation from a victim services advocate, the employee’s attorney, a member of the clergy, or a health care professional stating that the employee is or was receiving services related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking; or the employee’s own written statement that the use of paid sick leave is for one of these purposes.Notice to Employees and Recordkeeping Requirements Employers will be required to notify employees of their rights under this new law in writing and through posting, including the right to file a complaint or bring a civil action for violations of the law.Employers will also be required to establish and maintain recordkeeping systems for the use and accrual of paid sick leave and must maintain these records for three years.Employers must ensure the confidentiality of any protected health information or information regarding domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking regarding their employees or the family members of employees.The commissioner of Labor and Industry is tasked with promulgating regulations detailing these requirements.Enforcement and Retaliation Prohibitions Under the new law, employers are further prohibited from retaliating against an employee for requesting or using their paid sick leave benefits; for alleging a violation of the statute; for participating in an investigation, hearing, or proceeding or cooperating with or assisting the commissioner of Labor and Industry in an investigation of an alleged violation of the statute; or for informing any individual of their potential benefits under the statute.Employers are further prohibited from interfering with, restraining, denying the exercise of, or attempting to deny the exercise of paid sick leave and employers are prohibited from using an absence-control policy to count paid sick leave as an absence that may lead to any adverse action.The commissioner of Labor and Industry will promulgate regulations related to the enforcement of the statute including the receipt of complaints for noncompliance and timely investigation of such complaints.Any person alleging a violation of the statute will have one year from the date they knew or should have known of the potential violation to make a complaint to the commissioner.The commissioner is required to determine a reasonable time for an employer to correct an alleged violation without civil monetary penalty or other action and give employers the opportu