Department of Labor to Employers: You Must Notify Your Employees of New Paid Leave Laws by April 1, 2020

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, effective April 1, 2020, requires certain public employers and private employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide E-FMLA and Emergency Paid Sick Leave to eligible employees. Employers must notify current employees of these benefits by circulating the official Notice of Employee Rights published by the Department of Labor, depicted below and found online here.

Employers must post the notice in a conspicuous place on their premises. Employees who are working remotely must receive notice via email, or direct mail, or via a posting on an employee information internal or external website.

Employers need not post the notice in multiple languages, but the DOL is currently working to translate it into other languages.

The notice requirement only applies to current employees. It does not have to be provided to recently laid-off individuals or new job applicants. All new hires, however, must be provided with the notice if they are hired between April 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020.

The initial notice document was made available on March 25, 2020. Any updates, and translated versions of this notice, can be found here.

You can read more about E-FMLA and Emergency Paid Sick Leave requirements here, as well as on the Stites & Harbison PLLC COVID-19 Resource Page. For specific questions, please contact one of our employment attorneys.