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The Boxing Match: OSHA v State COVID Sick Leave in Healthcare

December 17, 2021 by

If you thought regular leave was a rubric’s cube of complication, be ready to meet its crazy uncle, COVID-19 Leave Laws. While the FFCRA is no longer available, even voluntarily, that hasn’t stopped state governments and OSHA to outline specific leaves for COVID-19 reasons. So, if you are a healthcare provider in Massachusetts you may want to listen in.

The Contenders:

In this corner: OSHA Health Care ETS –

As a health care provider, you may be subject to the OSHA Healthcare ETS rule passed back in June of this year. This means that you are required to provide leave for receiving and recovering from vaccinations and if an employee contracts, has symptoms of, or is a close contact of COVID-19.

In this corner: Massachusetts COVID Emergency Paid Sick Leave –

As a Massachusetts employer as of May 2021, you are also required to provide leave for receiving and recovering from a vaccine, if an employee contracts, has symptoms of, or is a close contact of COVID-19, AND to care for a family member for those things as well.

So, you have two overlapping laws, who wins out? That would be the one that provides the most rights to the employee? And the result? It’s mixed.

Who wins the knockout?

For Vaccinations and Care for a Family Member – MA COVID EPSL (DING DING DING)

  • MA EPSL: 40 hours of sick leave at the employees’ regular rate of capped at $850 per week.
  • OSHA ETS: only says “reasonable amount of time” and it can come from an existing bank of sick leave or vacation time. They state reasonable is 4 hours for the vaccination administration and 16 hours of recovery, so less than the MA EPSL

For The Employee’s Own Condition – OSHA HEALTHCARE ETS (DING DING DING)

  • OSHA ETS:
    • Less than 500 employees – two full weeks of pay, capped at $1,400 per week and the third week, if needed, at 2/3 of the employee’s rate capped at $1,000 per week.
    • More than 500 employees – entire leave at employee’s full pay capped at $1,400.
  • MA EPSL: only 40 hours of sick leave capped at $850 per week.

So, it’s a tie? Either way, if you need help drafting your COVID-19 sick leave policies no matter the state or business type, we can help. Or if you need a ref to break the tie, we can do that too.