Covid paid sick leave update

The Business Council of New York has been working with the Department of Labor and the Governor’s Office “to mitigate the effects of the Governor’s decision to allow employees the ability to act as their own ‘public health official’ and to quarantine themselves for the purposes of paid sick leave,” according to a press release from the BCNY. “This week the DOL updated the FAQ section of the Covid paid sick leave page to provide some relief for employers.”

According to DOL updates, employees are now limited to receiving the COVID paid sick leave benefit a maximum of three times. Additionally, the second and third occurrence must be the result of a positive test documented by a licensed medical provider or testing facility. No longer will employees be eligible for additional COVID leaves based on their use of home tests. The passage reads:

In no event shall an employee qualify for sick leave under New York’s COVID-19 sick leave law for more than three orders of quarantine or isolation. The second and third orders must be based on a positive COVID-19 test and the employee must submit documentation from a licensed medical provider or testing facility attesting that the employee has tested positive for COVID-19. The employee does not need to submit documentation of a positive result if the employee’s employer gave the employee the test for COVID-19 that showed the positive result.

Also, periods of quarantine have been shortened by the Department of Health to as little as five days in most cases, and benefits are not available to employees who are not “quarantined.”

In January 2022, the Department of Health released updated guidance allowing individuals who have been exposed to COVID-19 to end their quarantine after 5 days if they are asymptomatic and subsequently test negative, or if it is not possible to get a test and they have had no COVID-19 symptoms. How does this affect NY’s COVID-19 quarantine leave benefits?

NY’s COVID-19 quarantine leave benefits are only available during the order of quarantine or isolation. Once an individual is no longer subject to an order of quarantine or isolation, they are no longer eligible for NY’s COVID-19 quarantine leave benefits. The Department of Health’s webpage, New York State’s Approach to Isolation and Quarantine provides the latest guidance.