Posted on April 14th, 2020
Below is a complete transcript of this video.
Speaker 1: (00:00)
It seems like with all the confusion and all the different branches, is there any particular sources that you’re going to, because you know they’re changing everyday.
So to pick up the phone and call your lawyer every day as things change just doesn’t make sense. Makes more sense. Just to look at what’s going on as, are there any particular resources?
Speaker 2: (00:17)
Yeah. Pick up the phone and call your lawyer, please keep particular resources. I’m not getting anything done with this fire
Speaker 1: (00:29)
answering questions that change or, you know, I was gonna do, uh, several little videos a day, but every time I thought I was going to do a video, something would change. And I was like, well I can’t do that video now.
All right. So it just seemed better to do something like this and then maybe chop it up into bits or, and then let one run so you can watch this altogether or in bits. Cause I think that’s what I’m going to do. If you can’t pay attention to boring law talk, I know I wouldn’t be able to. Uh, so anyway.
Yeah. So what resources have you been going to?
Speaker 2: (01:04)
Oh, the specific sites. So mayor, you just type in mayor Los Angeles or governor of California. Usually they have a coronavirus specific website.
As soon as you type in, you know, LA County, they’re going to have a Corona virus link at the top. Every single website has a Corona virus link that says that generally it tracks how many people have caught the disease or died from it and their County.
And then also they had any new changes that happened. So I’ve just been checking all of them. If you’re operating in just one state, it’s not that hard.
You just, you know, look at County health and LA city. LA city has a devoted website. That one’s pretty good. It’s like LA city flash Corona virus or something.
Cornea has, you know, um, they have, well the, the department of fair employment and housing has a really good FAQ page. And also the department of labor for the U S has a really good FAQ page. the department of labor recently issued a new required posting for employers to put up in the break room.
And so they posted it on their website. And so there’s just, it’s like a link with the little Corona virus blob floating on the top and you click on that. And,
Speaker 1: (02:30)
and for, uh, clients that are working are for employees that are working remotely. You have to email it to them, is that correct?
Speaker 2: (02:37)
Yeah. Read the FAQ. Yeah. I mean that is considered a sufficient means of conspicuous posting if you email it to your remote employees.
Speaker 1: (02:50)
Um, do you know if it’s required to, um, email it to your remote employees? Okay. Okay. Um, all, I think that’s uh, Oh, I had one thought.
You know what I was thinking is even though I think there’s going to be a lot of, uh, fallout at the end of this where a lot of employers are gonna get hit with this and that the, the one bright spot, if there is any, is that I think the majority of it is going to be wage and hour.
I think it’s going to be wage and hour stuff, which is much easier to deal with then, um, uh, you know, that a, the fee had claims like retaliation, discrimination or any of that stuff. I don’t see a lot that can come out of that as long as you didn’t, uh, specifically target certain people to, to, to terminate, right.
Speaker 1: (03:38)
If you either laid off people or you didn’t, or laid off a department or you didn’t, or laid off certain jobs or you didn’t, you know, um, I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of, of via claims.
I think it’s gonna be a lot of wage and hour and those are a lot of times just math and so much easier to do with them when someone says, you know, retaliation or discrimination or sexual harassment or, you know, any of those other stuff that there’s just no number you can put on it.
It just seems to be what’s your, um, ability to pay and that’s how much we’re going after, you know? So, um, that’s one of goodness. Any thing you want to say? Well, first of all, I really appreciate you doing this.
I know you’re a busy person and I know that you’re getting calls all the time from, uh, all hours of the night from, uh, your employer trying to get you to figure this stuff out. Uh, so thank you very much. And there’s anything you want to say.
Speaker 2: (04:30)
Thanks for having me. Yeah. Oh, in closing, uh, I mean in terms of what you just said about, um, being responsible and all of these claims that are coming available, you know, this proposed ordinance for the city of LA, they included a provision in there for the employer.
Not only has the burden of proving that the employee is not an independent contractor, but they also maybe liable for attorney’s fees and then they, they’re just, um, they, of course there’s a anti-discrimination provision in there and it’s, it kind of opens up that, yeah,
Speaker 1: (05:10)
I bet. So, so there’s an attorney’s fees provision
Speaker 2: (05:14)
for prevailing party. So if you, on what ruling, what specific ruling? It’s for the proposed ordinance for increased sick pay in the city of LA to add 80 hours to the existing requirement for 48 hours.
Speaker 1: (05:28)
So that’s, so that’s, that’s a potential big one if it passes through. So, so we’re still not certain if this proposal who this proposed order affects, right. So it’s anyone that’s employed up to April 1st, right?
Speaker 2: (05:44)
That no, that would be for any, it was very broad. I mean this was incredibly broad April 1st deadline. That’s for the federal law, the families first act.
So that one goes into effect. It’s 80 hours for any employer who has fewer than 500 employees. And there may be some exemptions if you have fewer than 50 employees, but it was not only not addressed in the hastily slapped together legislation, but the department of labor FAQ say, you know, just be ready.
We’re going to issue something soon. And in the meantime take notes and don’t send them to us. So if you think you are exempt because you have fewer than 50 employees and you don’t have to pay is 80 hours of sick time, then take notes and we’ll get back to you later.
So that’s the federal rule. But for the city of LA, this is an additional 80 hours that the city of LA is going to require on top of what the fence? Yeah, the feds. That’s April 1st through December 31st you know,
Speaker 1: (06:54)
We were trying to wrap it up, but that brings up another question though. It’s, it’s so then what? I mean, so many people were laid off Friday morning, you know, on, so, if there’s, if they’re making it broad, it wouldn’t make sense for all the people that are already laid off because there is no sick pay for you and you’ve already either used it or lost it.
And then you, you know, your vacation time. So is there anything where they address that?
Speaker 2: (07:22)
It seems like both the laws are for current employees.
Speaker 1: (07:25)
Oh, perfect. I just couldn’t, I just wouldn’t be shocked if they were like, Hey,
Speaker 2: (07:31)
I don’t want to speak to definitively because nothing is clear. It’s like a complete gray area. Nothing is clear, but it seems that that federal law is just for, let me just be really clear.
So what we know in the families first act is that there are two provisions that affect what you’d have to pay out as an employer. And so one is they expanded the definition of FMLA, so family medical leave act. So that’s broader than it used to be.
And then they added those 80 hours of sick pay. So for the FMLA part, the only expansion is that if you have to take care of a kid because their school is closed and they’re K through 12 then that’s now included in the definition of qualified leave.
It used to just be for if you’re pregnant or if you have a serious health condition that’s been documented by a doctor, that kind of thing. But now they expanded it to include parents. That’s that. Then there’s the emergency sick pay.
So that’s the 80 hours of sick pay that the federal government is requiring you to pay. The good news about that is there’s 100% tax credit available for employers. So you pay that and then you write it off on your taxes. So
Speaker 1: (08:46)
interest free loan first. So you guys will be making interest free loans. That’s the way, look at it as a business owner. Hey, let me just use up all of my cash for, and then the government will pay me back later for the money that I will owe them.
Speaker 2: (09:06)
Yeah. So that’s federal. And then on top of that, and before that you, if you had any other sick pay policy, vacation time, uh, whatever else you, you can’t require the employee to use that tax credit 80 hours first you have to use your existing leave policy first.
That’s a requirement under the, under the federal law. So I’ll give you the example in the city of LA right now, as of today, you’re required to provide your employee 48 hours of sick time. And then the order from last week on the 18th March, it says you can use that 48 hours of sick time for any COBIT 19 related reason. Okay.
And that’s including not having enough hours to work because your restaurant closed or whatever it is. Okay. You can really, it’s very, very broad. So you have to pay the 48 hours of sick time first even. And then when you get to April 1st then the federal 80 hours begins. So you, you have to pay that state required or LA.
Speaker 1: (10:21)
So even after April 1st they have to use that up because I don’t know that we even have enough time between now and April.
Speaker 2: (10:27)
Right. So that’s where the law is not clear. And from a lot of research and consultation, we have the thought that you stop in the middle.
So you use however much of that 48 hours is between now and April 1st and then you start the 80 and then when the 80 runs out you go back. So it doesn’t really make sense.
It’s hard to track, but you should be tracking it just like you should be tracking FMLA leave because you’re going to be making, you know, payroll or sorry, you’re going to making tax credit adjustments for it. So you should be tracking it.
That part, not very clear. And that’s city of LA. So if you have someone who’s just outside of city of LA boundaries, um, for example, you know, any of these small towns, I would imagine it would be, you know, I’m trying to think of somewhere over there in Malibu, what’s not an actual city, you know, outside of the city of Burbank. Right.
So then you’re probably, I don’t think the city of Burbank has its own sick pay rules, so then you’re probably operating under the state of California sick payrolls, which only requires 24 hours. So.
Speaker 1: (11:38)
All right. Thank you so much for the thing and I really appreciate it and hopefully you’ll be a guest on this tiny little show for us entrepreneurs. Uh, one day. Again.
Speaker 2: (11:53)
Thank you. All
Speaker 1: (11:54)
right everybody. I hope you enjoyed our lovely guests, a very smart, very knowledgeable about employment related things. Until next time, be productive.
