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Pittsburgh Mayor Signs Coronavirus Related Leave Ordinance

 

Earlier this month, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto signed a new ordinance that will provide many workers in the city with leave to deal with a coronavirus sickness.

The ordinance will supplement The Pittsburgh Paid Sick Days Act (“PDSA”) which took effect earlier this year.  Under the ordinance, covered employees are expressly permitted to use sick time under the PDSA before it is accrued so long as the reason for the leave is related to the coronavirus.

Now for the all important specifics of the ordinance.  Employers in the city with more than 50 employees are required to provide paid coronavirus sick time to their employees for coronavirus related reasons such as the care of a family member due to a coronavirus related reason, a determination that an employee’s presence in the workplace could jeopardize the health of others because of the coronavirus, as well as an employee’s need to self isolate because of coronavirus related matters.  (The ordinance applies to employees that are working for an employer within Pittsburgh after the ordinance went into effect along with employees that normally work for a Pittsburgh employer but are currently working remotely as well as employees that work for an employer from mobile locations so long as 51% or more of the employee’s time is spent in Pittsburgh.)

Covered employees are able to take up to 80 hours of leave in addition to any other paid leave provided under the PDSA.  (Employees that work 40+ hours a week are entitled to 80 hours of paid leave; employees that work less than 40 hours a week are entitled to leave in an amount equal to the amount of time the employee is otherwise scheduled to work or works on average in a 14 day period, whichever is greater.)  Of note, this leave is in addition to any paid or sick leave already provided by the employer.

It is noteworthy that this leave is to be provided to employees immediately without the need to wait for the leave to accrue.  The only caveat is the employee must have been employed by the employer for the past 90 days.  If leave had already been provided by the employer prior to this ordinance, the leave established by this ordinance is in addition to the prior leave.


For additional information:  https://pittsburgh.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4701797&GUID=2D2C3863-DF9E-4127-A514-976420C4A7FD&Options=ID%7cText%7c&Search&FullText=1

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