Will COVID Sick Leave Return to California?

Amid the omicron surge, California labor unions and their Democratic allies in the Legislature are pushing the state to bring back supplemental paid sick leave, which Gov. Gavin Newsom also proposed funding for in his recently announced state budget.

But as with so much else in this pandemic, doing so is not a simple proposition, further complicated by the current staffing shortages in health care and other essential workplaces.

A number of powerful business groups oppose the extension. And key details of the sick leave still must be worked out, including whether companies would get any help to offset their costs.

Under the previous state law, which was in effect from last March until Newsom and the Legislature let it expire at the end of September, any employer with more than 25 workers was required to offer as many as 80 hours of leave for quarantines or vaccine side effects. Employees could receive as much as $511 a day, or a maximum of $5,110 total, with hours accrued retroactive to Jan. 1, 2021.

The supplemental leave — on top of the minimum three days of paid sick leave a year that all employees get — was funded last year by a federal tax credit equal to a worker’s paid time off, including any health care costs. That credit also expired Sept. 30.

The state law didn’t contain a provision to reimburse businesses — and it's also not included in Newsom’s proposed budget, or in his emergency $1.4 billion request for COVID response.

Ashley Hoffman, a policy advocate at the California Chamber of Commerce, said her group continues to have concerns about the costs to businesses — and raised the argument that paid sick leave encourages workers not to get vaccinated.

“Businesses are already doing a lot to help fight the pandemic. There’s been a lot of mandates through Cal/OSHA,” she told CalMatters. “There’s this general issue of, how much [obligation] does the business community have to continue to subsidize those workers who are choosing to continue to be unvaccinated? That seems to cut against the state’s message to get vaccinated.”

The governor’s office said it would not comment on that argument, or whether any aid for businesses is under consideration.

“We’re working with the Legislature to craft a policy that meets the needs of 2022, which are different than 2021’s, given new and revised information about science and vaccines,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for the state's Department of Finance.

In voicing his support for renewing paid leave, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon suggested he would be open to aiding some employers. “In the absence of new federal funding to assist small businesses with COVID sick leave requirements, I support augmenting the Governor’s budget to add state funding for this purpose, and we have already had a productive discussion on this,” Rendon said in a statement.

Federal guidelines, endorsed by state health officials, recommend that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, should isolate for five days if they test positive. (In response to staffing shortages, the state on Saturday made an exception for some asymptomatic health care workers through January.)

“We believe it’s important to value those workers and provide them sick leave protections,” Newsom said at his budget rollout Monday.

Democratic leaders of the Legislature agreed. “We look forward to working out the details and reaching early agreement on this budget action,” Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins told CalMatters.

Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, a Democrat from Los Angeles, said that, given the budget surplus, now is the right time to protect workers and help struggling small businesses.

“Workers should not have to make a choice between losing their job or taking care of their health or the health of a loved one. And small businesses, who are the heart of many communities, need support as we move forward with pandemic and economic recovery efforts,” she said in a statement Tuesday. “These efforts are not mutually exclusive, they are complementary. We can do both.”

Carrillo, state Sen. María Elena Durazo — also from LA — and labor leaders are holding a virtual press conference on Thursday calling on legislators to approve two weeks of supplemental paid sick leave.

Newsom's support for extended paid leave came after months of lobbying by unions and public health groups, as well as the Work and Family Coalition, who are urging the Legislature to act swiftly, well before final approval of the budget in June.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council, which represents 180,000 employees in California, is demanding an immediate reinstatement of the two weeks of COVID leave as a “public health imperative.”

“Workers currently have no safety net if they are exposed or sick with COVID-19 just as the virus is breaking new records,” its president, Andrea Zinder, said in a statement.

SEIU California, which has 700,000 members in 17 local unions, also is amping up the pressure on legislators.

“As omicron continues to spread, it is critical that the Administration has signaled its commitment to providing workers supplemental paid sick leave that we need to keep ourselves, our colleagues, our families, our clients and patients, and our communities safe,” union President Bob Schoonover said in a statement.