California passed an expanded COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave statute (SPSL) in March that included coverage for employees to get vaccinated. More recently, the county of Los Angeles passed an urgency ordinance on May 18 that mandates additional paid leave for some employees in unincorporated areas of the county to be vaccinated.
Covered employers. This new ordinance would cover all employers in the unincorporated areas of the county of Los Angeles.
Paid-time-off requirement. Full- and part-time employees who have exhausted time off under the state SPSL and who perform any work in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County are eligible for the new Los Angeles County paid-time-off entitlement.
Full-time employees—who are defined as either those employees designated by the employer as full-time or who worked or were scheduled to work on average at least 40 hours per week in the two weeks preceding their leave—are entitled to use up to 4 hours of additional paid time off, per vaccination injection. Part-time employees would be entitled to a prorated portion of additional paid time off.
Notification requirement. Covered employers must post in a conspicuous place a written notice that will be made available electronically by the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs. However, the posting is not yet available on the county's website.
Record-keeping requirement. Employers will be required to keep records that show compliance with the ordinance including payroll records for a four-year period.
Operative period. As an urgency ordinance, the ordinance went into effect immediately. However, the ordinance applies retroactively to Jan. 1, similar to the state SPSL. The ordinance will sunset on Aug. 31.
Jennifer S. Grock is an attorney with Jackson Lewis in Los Angeles. © 2021 Jackson Lewis. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission.