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The District of Columbia recently enacted the Coronavirus Support Emergency Amendment Act of 2020 and the Coronavirus Support Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2020 (collectively, “CSEA”) providing leave for employees affected by COVID-19.

CSEA expanded the DC Family and Medical Leave Act (“DCFMLA”), by affording employees 16 weeks of unpaid, job-protected, COVID-19 related leave. All employers with at least 1 employee located in DC must now provide employees who have been on staff at least 30 days leave to:

1. comply with a recommendation from a health care provider that the employee isolate or quarantine;
2. care for a family member or an individual with whom the employee shares a household who is under a government or health care provider’s order to quarantine or isolate; or
3. care for a child whose school or place of care is closed or whose childcare provider is unavailable to the employee.

CSEA amended the D.C. Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008 (“ASSLA”) to require all employers, with 50 to 499 employees (excluding healthcare providers), to provide 2 weeks of paid leave for any of the enumerated reasons an employee is entitled to leave under the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act. An employee is eligible for this leave if they began working for the employer at least 15 days before they request the leave. CSEA provided details on employer paid leave, notice requirements to employers and certification requirements.

CSEA’s expansion of DCFMLA and the ASSLA expansion are retroactively effective

March 11, 2020 and April 10, 2020, respectively. CSEA is scheduled to expire on August 25, 2020, unless permanent legislation is passed. The full text of CSEA is available here and here.

Guidance and answers to FAQs from the DC Office of Human Rights (“OHR”) discussing CSEA certification requirements, notice of rights to employees and more, is available here. Employers must also post the workplace poster detailing the DCFMLA available here.

Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this Alert or would like to discuss this topic further.

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The contents of this Alert are for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. If you have any questions about this Alert, please contact the Shulman Rogers attorney with whom you regularly work or a member of the Shulman Rogers Employment and Labor Law Group.