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New Laws for 2021: SB 95 (California)

 

Last Thursday, the California Legislature approved SB 95 which will provide employees in the state with additional paid sick leave benefits to combat the financial impact of the coronavirus.  A day later, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the legislation into law.

When the Families First Coronavirus Response Act expired at the end of 2020, the only employees in California that were able to take supplemental sick leave were those employees that worked in jurisdictions that had implemented their own paid sick leave ordinances.  SB 95 will provide paid sick leave for any employee in the state that is unable to work or telework for an employer due to reasons related to the coronavirus.  However, SB 95 will only apply to employers that have more than 25 employees.

Of note, SB 95 also provides supplemental sick leave employees to obtain a vaccine or to those that are experiencing symptoms from a vaccine that prevent them from working or teleworking.

Perhaps one of the more important parts of SB 95 is to keep in mind that it applies retroactively back to January 1, 2021.  As a result, employers are required to compensate any employee who took unpaid time off prior to the passage of SB 95, as long as the time off was used for one of the purposes specified in the legislation.


For additional information:  https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB95

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