Paid Sick Leave for Federal Contractors

Background

The Department of Labor (DOL) has released its Proposed Rulemaking to implement Executive Order 13706 which establishes paid sick leave for Federal Contractors.   Final DOL regulations are due September 30, 2016. 

Specifics

Executive Order 13706-  Paid Sick Leave for Federal Contractors provides up to seven days (56 hours) of paid sick leave annually for employees working on certain (see below) federal contracts. 

The paid sick leave applies to employees working on federal contracts entered into after Jan 1, 2017 in the following categories: 

1. A procurement contract for construction covered by the DBA (Davis- Bacon Act of 1931)
2. A contract for services covered by the SCA (McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act)
3. A contract for concessions, including and concessions contract excluded from coverage under the SCA by DOL regulations at 29 CFR 4.1333(b)
4. A contract in connection with federal property or lands and related to offering services for federal employees, their dependents, or the general public.

The paid sick leave will be accrued at 1 hour for every 30 hours worked for a total of no less than 56 hours of paid sick leave per year.   (It looks like the employer can cap the hours at 56)

Unused sick leave does not have to be paid out upon termination.  However, this sick leave must carry over from year to year and sick leave will need to be reinstated if the employee is hired within 12 months after their separation date.

Responsibilities

Sponsored Programs

1. Grace will communicate this to pre-award
2. Grace will add something on grant set up checklist to inform payroll when grants are set up

Human Resources

1. Kathryn will add new employee type in ADP to flag the employees who have different sick leave
2. Kathryn will update employee handbook

Process

1. Sponsored Programs Liaisons will notify Payroll when any federal contracts come in that meet the above criteria
2. Payroll will send project number list to Human Resources staff when notified by SP
3. When HR is alerted by payroll, the project numbers will be flagged and employee identified. 
4. When HR staff enter the employees into ADP they will use the new employee type to identify the employees. 
5. Once HR has identified the employees who this applies to (employee type), payroll will set up the accrual in ADP.

Items to work on

1. Creation of formal process
2. Communication to Pre-Award
3. Watch for final regulations in September
4. Review any federal contracts in December in preparation

We will meet by the end of April to discuss our progress.