
Source: HR360
Effective May 13, 2015, most employers will be required to provide up to 40 hours of paid or unpaid sick time per calendar year to eligible employees (generally individuals who perform work within Philadelphia for at least 40 hours in a year), as follows:
- Employers with 10 or more employees must provide paid sick time.
- Note: All persons performing work for compensation on a full-time, part-time, or temporary basis must be counted.
- Chain establishments (an establishment doing business under the same trade name used by 15 or more establishments—whether such other establishments are located in Philadelphia or elsewhere—and regardless of the type of ownership of each individual establishment) are required to provide paid sick time, regardless of the number of employees in that establishment.
- All employees not entitled to paid sick time under the ordinance are entitled to unpaid sick time.
Note: The ordinance does not apply to an employer with respect to those employees who are covered by a bona fide collective bargaining agreement.
Philadelphia Paid Sick Leave Notice
- Click here to download the poster: Phila paid sick leave notice 2015
- Click here to download the ordinance in full
Accrual of Sick Leave
- Employees will accrue a minimum of one hour of sick time for every 40 hours worked in Philadelphia.
- Employees will not accrue more than 40 hours of sick time in a calendar year (unless the employer selects a higher limit).
- Sick time will begin to accrue on May 13, 2015, as to an employee who is employed as of that date. An employee who becomes employed after May 13, 2015 will begin to accrue paid sick time at the commencement of his or her employment.
- Employees are entitled to use accrued sick time beginning on the 90th calendar day following commencement of employment. After the 90th calendar day of employment, employees may use sick time as it is accrued.
- Sick time is carried over to the following calendar year (unless the employer provides at least 40 hours of sick time at the beginning of each calendar year).
- An employee’s use of sick time in each calendar year cannot exceed 40 hours (unless the employer chooses to provide a higher limit).
- Certain employees who are exempt from overtime requirements under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act will be assumed to work 40 hours in each work week for purposes of sick time accrual—unless their normal work week is less than 40 hours, in which case sick time accrues based upon that normal work week.
- The ordinance does not require financial or other reimbursement to an employee from an employer upon the employee’s termination, resignation, retirement, or other separation from employment for accrued sick time that has not been used.
Use of Paid Sick Leave
Accrued paid sick time must be provided for:
- An employee’s mental or physical illness, injury or health condition; an employee’s need for medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition; an employee’s need for preventive medical care;
- Care of a family member with a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition; care of a family member who needs medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition; care of a family member who needs preventive medical care; or
- Absence necessary due to domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking, provided the leave is to allow the employee to obtain for the employee or the employee’s family member:
- Medical attention needed to recover from physical or psychological injury or disability caused by domestic or sexual violence or stalking;
- Services from a victim services organization;
- Psychological or other counseling;
- Relocation due to the domestic or sexual violence or stalking; or
- Legal services or remedies, including preparing for or participating in any civil or criminal legal proceeding related to or resulting from the domestic or sexual violence.
Note: An employer may not require, as a condition of providing sick time, that the employee search for or find a replacement worker to cover the hours during which the employee is on sick time.
Employee Notice
- Accrued sick time must be provided upon an employee’s oral or written request. When possible, the request must include the expected duration of the absence.
- When the need for sick time is known to the employee in advance (e.g., a scheduled doctor’s appointment), the employee must provide notice of the need for such time to the employer in advance and must make a reasonable effort to schedule the use of sick time in a manner that does not unduly disrupt the employer’s operations.
- For all other absences, the employee must notify the employer before the start of the employee’s scheduled work hours, or as soon as practicable if the need arises immediately before or after the employee has reported for work.
- For sick time of more than 2 consecutive days, an employer may require reasonable documentation (as described in the ordinance) that the sick time is covered by the ordinance.
Confidentiality Required
An employer may not require disclosure of details relating to domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking or the details of an employee’s medical condition or the medical condition of an employee’s family member as a condition of providing sick time under the ordinance.
If an employer possesses health information or information pertaining to domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking about an employee or employee’s family member, such information must be treated as confidential in accordance with state and federal laws and not disclosed, except to the affected employee or with his or her permission. (This provision does not apply if compliance would cause an employer to violate any other law, regulation or licensing standard.)
Interaction With Pre-Existing Leave Policies
Any employer with a paid leave policy, who makes available an amount of paid leave (e.g., vacation days, sick days, short-term disability benefits, floating holidays, parental leave, personal days, or PTO) sufficient to meet or exceed the ordinance’s accrual requirements, and that may be used for the same purposes and under the same conditions as sick time under the ordinance, is not required to provide additional sick time.
Employer Notice and Recordkeeping
- Employers must give notice that employees are entitled to sick time (along with certain other information).
- Employers must comply with this requirement by either supplying each of their employees with a notice; or displaying a poster in a conspicuous and accessible place in each establishment where such employees are employed.
- The notice and poster may need to be provided and posted in multiple languages.
- Philadelphia Paid Sick Leave Notice
- Poster in English – PDF format
- Such information must also be included in any employee handbooks that are distributed to employees.
- Employers must comply with this requirement by either supplying each of their employees with a notice; or displaying a poster in a conspicuous and accessible place in each establishment where such employees are employed.
- Employers must keep the following records for 2 years:
- Hours worked;
- Sick time taken; and
- Payment made to employees for the sick time (if payment was made upon the effective date of the ordinance).
For More Information
Paid Sick Leave for Certain Contractors & Public Employees
The City of Philadelphia requires certain employers to provide paid sick leave to full-time, non-temporary, non-seasonal employees. Under the ordinance, covered employees are entitled to a minimum of one hour of paid sick time for every 40 hours worked in Philadelphia. The hours of paid sick time an employee may accrue in a calendar year under the ordinance is capped at 56 hours for employers with 11 or more employees and 32 hours for employers with fewer than 11 but more than 5 employees.
The following employers are subject to the requirement:
- The City of Philadelphia, including all its agencies, departments and offices;
- For-profit Service Contractors (as defined in the City’s code), which receive or are subcontractors on contract(s) for $10,000 or more from the City in a twelve-month period, with annual gross receipts of more than $1,000,000;
- Non-profit Service Contractors which receive or are subcontractors on contract(s) from the City of more than $100,000 in a twelve-month period;
- Recipients of City leases, concessions, or franchises, or subcontractors thereof, which employ more than twenty-five (25) employees;
- City financial aid recipients (compliance is required for a period of five (5) years following receipt of aid); and
- Public agencies which receive contract(s) for $10,000 or more from the City in a twelve-month period.
Employers are required to post a notice of the entitlement to paid sick leave and certain other information as required by the Mayor’s Office of Labor Standards.
Click here for more information.
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