As you may recall, in response to the COVID-19 emergency, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was signed into law by President Trump on March 18, 2020. The provisions of the act became effective April 1, 2020, and will continue until December 31, 2020, unless otherwise modified by Congress. The Act extends leave and pay benefits to certain employees due to disruptions caused by the Coronavirus emergency. The Act applies to the City and its employees, but does provide that the City may exempt emergency responders from the FFCRA.
The FFCRA provides for both the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act.
Under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act employees are eligible for the following:
- Two weeks (up to 80 hours) of paid sick leave at the employee’s regular rate of pay where the employee is unable to work because the employee is quarantined (pursuant to Federal, State, or local government order or advice of a health care provider), and/or experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking a medical diagnosis.
- The employee may also qualify for this leave, paid at two thirds (2/3) the normal rate, if the employee is unable to work because of a bona fide need to care for an individual subject to quarantine (pursuant to Federal, State, or local government order or advice of a health care provider), or to care for a child (under 18 years of age) whose school or child care provider is closed or unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19, and/or the employee is experiencing a substantially similar condition as specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Secretaries of the Treasury and Labor.
Under the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act employees are eligible for up to 12 weeks of family and medical leave at two thirds (2/3) the employee’s regular rate of pay where an employee, who has been employed for at least 30 calendar days, is unable to work due to a bona fide need for leave to care for a child whose school or child care provider is closed or unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19 and telework is not an option. During the first two weeks of leave, an employee may be unpaid, use vacation or comp. time, sick leave bank, or if applicable use the two (2) weeks of pay under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act.
Due to the concerns about adequate staffing in our public safety departments, the City Manager, acting under the authority delegated to him by the City's Declaration of State of Emergency, opted to exclude first responders from the City's application of the FFCRA to our employees. However, a separate policy (the City of Brentwood COVID-19 Emergency Responder Leave Policy) was prepared to extend nearly identical benefits to those first responders. The primary difference is that under the City's Emergency Responder Leave Policy, approval of certain leave is subject to management review of staffing levels and a determination of need. It is the City’s intent to accommodate the needs of all employees, including emergency responders and their families, as much as possible.
Attached are charts showing the details of the coverage for both the FFCRA and the Emergency Responder Leave Policy. You will see that as described above, the coverage is nearly identical for both policies. The FFCRA provided that the benefits would end December 31, 2020, and the Emergency Responder Leave Policy will expire at the same time.
You are also aware that there have been some modifications made to staffing of City facilities and operations due to COVID-19. Many employees have been directed to work remotely or split shifts, and some have been unable to work a full shift due to these modifications. Due to this, the City Manager implemented a local option pay policy to ensure that all employees would be paid regardless of their ability to work due to City mandated facility closures or shift modifications and/or the employees’ inability to work remotely due to the nature of their job. Ensuring our employees are paid for their regularly scheduled hours during those periods of time when the City had directed modifications to their work schedule or the operation of their worksite is necessary to ensure the City is quickly able to return to full operation at the appropriate time.
While the City Manager has previously communicated the details of these policies to Commissioners, staff feels it would be appropriate to request formal ratification of these temporary policies by the Board of Commissioners, which is charged with establishing personnel rules and policies. |