Are you up to date on the latest revised FFCRA regulations from the US Department of Labor (DOL)? Scott Cruz with Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C. wrote a blog outlining these revisions that clarify workers’ rights and employers’ responsibilities under the FFCRA’s paid leave provisions, specifically the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSL) and Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA).

Scott Cruz states that the primary impetus for the revisions to the FFCRA regulations was to provide clarity following the August 3, 2020, decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which invalidated four different portions of the FFCRA regulations.

The revised FFCRA regulations, which take effect September 16, 2020, do the following:

1. Reaffirm the requirement that an employee is not eligible for paid leave under the EPSL and/or the EFMLEA if his/her employer has no work available for the employee to perform, even if the employee is otherwise qualified for paid leave under FFCRA.

2. Reaffirm the requirement that an employee must have employer approval to take intermittent FFCRA leave.

3. Revise the definition of a “health care provider” who may be excluded by their employer from EPSL and EFMLEA to include employees who meet the definition of a health care provider under the FMLA regulations, and those individuals who are employed to provide diagnostic services, preventative services, treatment services, or other services that are integrated with and necessary to the provision of patient care which, if not provided, would adversely impact patient care.

4. Clarify that employees must provide their employers with the required documentation (e.g. name, date(s) for leave, qualifying reason for leave, oral statement that employee is unable to work or telework, and any other supporting documentation such as quarantine or isolation order, doctor’s note advising employee to self-quarantine, school or place of care closure letter, etc.) supporting their need for EPSL and/or EFMLEA leave “as soon as practicable.”

5. Correct an inconsistency regarding when employees may be required to provide notice of a need to take expanded family and medical leave to their employers.

For more detailed explanations, click here to read the full blog from Scott Cruz with Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C.