Massachusetts Sick Leave Compliance

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June 2015

Overview

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• Accrual begins July 1, 2015 or date of hire, whichever is later.

• Employees are not entitled to use sick leave until 90 days of employment.

• Employees accrue 1 hour of sick pay for every 30 hours worked, both overtime and regular hours are counted towards the accrual rate. Hours worked outside of MA count towards the accrual if the employee works more hours in MA than any other jurisdiction.

• Salaried, exempt employees are deemed to have worked 40 hours per week unless their workweek is less than 40 hours.

• Employees are allowed to accrue up to 40 hours per calendar year.

• All unused hours roll over from year to year, but usage is capped at 40 hours per year.

• Employers are allowed to cap accruals for employees who have a bank of 40 hours until the employee uses time. Randstad will adopt this policy.

• Randstad will allow usage of sick time in 1 hour increments.

• Employee must be on assignment in order to use the sick time.

 

Accruals

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• An employee is eligible to accrue and use earned sick time if the employee’s primary place of work is in Massachusetts.

• An employee need not spend more than 50% of working time in Massachusetts for it to be his or her primary place of work.

• Example: A painter with a single employer works 40% of her hours in Massachusetts, 30% in New Hampshire and 30% in other states. Massachusetts is her primary place of work.

• If an employee is eligible to accrue and use earned sick time then all hours the employee works regardless of location of the work must be applied toward accrual of earned sick time.

• Example: In a single year, an employee of a catering company works 900 hours in Massachusetts and 150 hours in other states. The caterer will accrue earned sick time on all 1,050 hours worked for the catering company.

• Eligible employees permanently transferred to another state but remaining with the same employer will no longer accrue earned sick time but may use their accrued time.

Rate of Pay

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Same Hourly Rate• For employees compensated on an hourly basis, the same hourly rate means the employee’s

regular hourly rate.

• For employees who receive different pay rates for hourly work from the same employer, the same hourly rate means either: (a) the wages the employee would have been paid for the hours absent during use of earned sick time if the employee had worked; or (b) the blended rate, determined by taking the weighted average of all regular rates of pay over the previous pay period, month, quarter or other established period of time the employer customarily uses to calculate blended rates for similar purposes. Whatever method the employer elects to determine the same hourly rate, (a) or (b) above, the employer must use a consistent method for each employee throughout a benefit year.

• For salary, exempt the same hourly rate shall be calculated based on the employee’s normal salary/40 hours or the regular number of hours in a work week if salary is based upon less than 40 hours.

• For employees paid on commission (whether base wage plus commission or commission only), the same hourly rate means the greater of the base wage or the effective minimum wage under MA law ($9.00/hr as of 1/1/15).

• The same hourly rate shall not include: (a) sums paid as commissions, drawing accounts, bonuses, or other incentive pay based on sales or production; (b) contributions irrevocably made by an employer to a trustee or third person pursuant to a bona fide plan for providing old-age, retirement, life, accident, or health insurance, and any other employee benefit plans; (c) overtime, holiday pay, or other premium rates.

• Where an employee’s regular hourly rate is a “differential rate,” meaning a different wage rate paid for the same work performed under differing conditions (e.g. a night shift), the “differential rate” is not a premium and shall be paid as the sick leave rate.

Required Documentation

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• Documentation - An employer may require written documentation for an employee’s use of earned sick time that:

• exceeds 24 consecutively scheduled work hours;

• exceeds 3 consecutive days on which the employee was scheduled to work;

• occurs within 2 weeks prior to an employee’s final scheduled day of work before termination of employment, except in the case of temporary employees;

• occurs after 4 unforeseeable and undocumented absences within a 3-month period; or for employees aged 17 and under, occurs after 3 unforeseeable and undocumented absences within a 3-month period.

Attendance Policies

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• The statute prohibits an employer from disciplining an employee for using sick days accrued under the statute. If an employee used paid sick days for the purposes described in the statute, disciplining the employee for taking “unexcused” absences could give rise to a retaliation claim. 

• If the talent calls in and is using protected sick time for the absence, the entire day should be considered protected and should not be counted as an unexcused (or unscheduled) absence under the attendance policies.  Of course, we would only need to pay them based on the time they have accrued.

• We need to protect ourselves from claims of retaliation by educating our clients that absences due to sick leave are protected and that the absence cannot be the basis for discharging. 

• We can discipline for legitimate business reasons for absences that take place after an employee has exhausted his or her annual allotment of state mandated paid sick days.

• The employer may discipline employees for clear pattern of using earned sick time before or after weekends or holidays.

Additional Comments

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• Employees are not entitled to receive a payout upon termination for any accrued and unused sick time unless the paid sick time is rolled into a PTO plan for which a payout may be due.

Break in Service:

• Following a break in service of up to four months, an employee shall maintain the right to use any unused earned sick time accrued before the break in service.

• Following a break in service of between four and 12 months, an employee shall maintain the right to use earned sick time accrued before the break in service if the employee’s unused bank of earned sick time equals or exceeds 10 hours.

• Following a break in service of up to twelve months, employees maintain their vesting days from the employer and do not need to restart the 90-day vesting period.

Communications

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• All new hires should be given the updated Onboarding Notice beginning June 22, 2015.

• Benefits will issue the sick leave notice by July 1, 2015 to all Associates and Talent active as of June 19, 2015.

• Branches/Offices have posting requirement.

• Legal Alert

• Job Aid

Randstad North American Health and Welfare Benefits Plan Talent Massachusetts Sick Leave Policy (the “Massachusetts Policy”)

Covered Employees eligible to accrue and receive paid sick leave

All W2 employees of Randstad North America, L.P, (“Randstad” or “Company”) working in the state of Massachusetts are eligible for paid sick leave under the Randstad U.S., Professionals Massachusetts Paid Sick Leave Policy to include full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary employees. An employee is a "Massachusetts" employee as long as he or she works in Massachusetts more than any other state, even if this is less than 50% of the employee's total work time

Accrual of Paid Sick Leave based on hours worked in the municipality or state

Accrual of paid sick leave begins immediately on July 1, 2015 for existing employees. An employee begins accruing sick time commencing the date of his hire (or July 1, 2015,

whichever is later). Employees may not use earned sick time until the 90th calendar day from the date of hire. After the 90th day, employees may use earned sick time as it accrues.

Accrual Rate is 1 hour sick time for every 30 hours worked in the state of Massachusetts. Employees may accrue up to 40 hours per calendar year. "Calendar year" means any consecutive 12 month period designated by an employer. Randstad has chosen January 1 through December 31 as the designated calendar year.

Maximum Usage per Year Employees may use up to 40 hours of sick leave per calendar year. Rollover of Unused Sick Leave Employees may rollover up to 40 hours of unused sick leave per calendar year. When An Employee Can Use Sick Leave Employees may not use earned sick time until the 90th calendar day from the date of hire. How soon after hire an employee can begin to use paid sick leave

After the 90th date of hire, employees may use earned sick time as it accrues.

Situations when an employee may take paid sick leave

Paid sick leave may be taken for employee’s own use or employee's spouse, child, parent, or parent of spouse. (1) to care for the employee's child, spouse, parent, or parent of a spouse, who is suffering from a physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition that requires home care, professional medical diagnosis or care, or preventative medical care; or (2) to care for the employee's own physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition that requires home care, professional medical diagnosis or care, or preventative medical care, or attend the employee's routine medical appointment or a routine medical appointment of the employee's child, spouse, parent, or parent of spouse; or (3) to address the psychological, physical or legal effects of domestic violence as defined in subsection (g 1/2) of section 1 of chapter 151A.

Termination of an Employee Accrued but unused paid sick leave is forfeited and not paid out upon termination.

Re-Hiring of an Employee

Following a break in service of up to four months, an employee shall maintain the right to use any unused earned sick time accrued before the break in service.

Following a break in service of between four and 12 months, an employee shall maintain the right to use earned sick time accrued before the break in service if the employee’s unused bank of earned sick time equals or exceeds 10 hours.

Following a break in service of up to twelve months, employees maintain their vesting days from the employer and do not need to restart the 90-day vesting period, but previously unused time is forfeited.

Requesting of paid sick leave

Paid sick leave may be taken in one hour increments. In order to receive pay for sick leave accrued under the Massachusetts Paid Sick Leave

Policy Randstad requires employees’ to provide reasonable advance notification to their Randstad manager, or other Randstad individual of whom they are required to report , of the need for an absence for which paid sick leave will be used. o In the event the need for paid sick leave is unforeseeable, employees should notify

their manager as soon as practicable. o Such notification shall be provided in accordance with the Operating Company’s

established notification policy and procedures.

Prohibition of Discrimination and Retaliation. This policy is intended to comply with the Massachusetts Paid Sick Leave Ordinance. If there are any discrepancies between this policy and the Massachusetts Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, the Ordinance will prevail. The Company strictly prohibits discrimination or retaliation against employees because of their exercise of rights under this policy. Employees who believe that their rights have been violated under this statute or that they have been discriminated or retaliated against for exercising their rights under this policy are required to report such belief to their manager or supervisor and to the Human Resources Department immediately.

Known Issues, Earnings Codes, Enhancements

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• Offices/Branches do not have access to view accruals. (9.0)

• Benefits is manually handling the leaves for RGS and PICs, validating accruals for RP

• Offices/Branches have access to pull Leave Accrual report to view balances (8.3)

• Eligibility to use leave (reports) being created in 9.0 (InfoCenter) and 8.3 (Cognos/Enterprise Reporting)

TKO 8.3 RGS 9.0 PICS 9.0 RPG 9.0Plan Type N/A 5Y 54 5Y 5Y

Earnings Code SLMASKH OR SCK (hourly or salaried)

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