Minnesota - Bloomington, MN Amends Sick Leave Ordinance for 2024

Current Law

Beginning Jan. 1, 2024

Coverage

Employers with five or more employees (regardless of location) must provide paid sick leave. Smaller employers must also provide sick leave, but it may be unpaid.

All employers must provide paid sick leave.

Definition of Family Member

A family member is defined as the employee’s:

· Child, step-child, adopted child, foster child, or adult child;

· Spouse;

· Sibling;

· Parent, step-parent, mother-in-law, or father-in-law;

· Grandchild or grandparent;

· Guardian or ward; or

· Members of the employee's household.

The definition of a family member is expanded and defined as the employee’s:

· Child, including foster child, adult child, legal ward, child for whom the employee is legal guardian or child to whom the employee stands or stood in loco parentis (in place of a parent);

· Spouse or registered domestic partner;

· Sibling, step-sibling, or foster sibling;

· Biological, adoptive or foster parent, step-parent, or a person who stood in loco parentis (in place of a parent) when the employee was a minor child;

· Grandchild, foster grandchild or step-grandchild;

· Grandparent or step-grandparent;

· A child of a sibling of the employee;

· A sibling of the parents of the employee;

· A child-in-law or sibling-in-law;

· Any of the family members listed above of an employee’s spouse;

· Any other individual related by blood or whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship; and

· Up to one individual annually designated by the employee.

Carryover of Accrued Leave

Employers must permit employees to carry over accrued but unused sick leave into the following year. Employers may cap total accrual at 80 hours.

Employers must permit employees to carry over accrued but unused sick leave into the following year. Employers may cap total accrual at 80 hours.

In lieu of allowing carryover into the following year, an employer may provide an employee with paid sick leave for the year that meets or exceeds the requirements of the ordinance that is available for the employee's immediate use at the beginning of the subsequent year as follows:

· 48 hours, if an employer pays an employee for accrued but unused paid sick leave at the end of a year at the same hourly rate as an employee earns from employment; or

· 80 hours, if an employer doesn’t pay an employee for accrued but unused paid sick leave at the end of a year at the same or greater hourly rate as an employee earns from employment.

Frontloading

An employer may satisfy the requirements by providing at least 48 hours of sick leave following the initial 90 days of employment for use by the employee during the first calendar year and providing at least 80 hours of sick leave beginning each subsequent calendar year.

An employer may satisfy the requirements by providing at least 48 hours of paid sick leave for immediate use by the employee during the first calendar year and providing at least 80 hours of sick leave beginning each subsequent calendar year.

Use

Employees may use accrued leave beginning 90 calendar days after the start of their employment.

Employees may use accrued leave as it is accrued.

An employee may use the sick leave for:

· The employee’s or a family member’s mental or physical illness, treatment, or preventive care;

· The death of a family member;

· An absence due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking of the employee or employee's family member;

· The closure of the employee's place of business by order of a public official to limit exposure to an infectious agent, biological toxin, hazardous material, or other public health emergency;

· The employee's need to care for a family member whose school or place of care has been closed by order of a public official to limit exposure to an infectious agent, biological toxin, hazardous material, or other public health emergency; and

· The employee's need to care for a family member whose school or place of care has been closed due to inclement weather, loss of power, loss of heating, loss of water, or other unexpected closure.

An employee may use sick leave for:

§ The employee’s or a family member’s mental or physical illness, treatment, or preventive care;

§ Absence due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking of the employee or a family member;

§ Closure of the employee’s workplace due to weather or public emergency or closure of a family member’s school or care facility due to weather or public emergency;

§ When determined by a health authority or healthcare professional that the employee or family member is at risk of infecting others with a communicable disease; and

§ The employee's inability to work or telework because the employee is: (i) prohibited from working by the employer due to health concerns related to the potential transmission of a communicable illness related to a public emergency; or (ii) seeking or awaiting the results of a diagnostic test for, or a medical diagnosis of, a communicable disease related to a public emergency and such employee has been exposed to a communicable disease or the employee's employer has requested a test or diagnosis.

Documentation

If the absence is for illness, injury, or medical care and is more than three consecutive days, the employer may require reasonable documentation that the absence is covered by the ordinance but only if the employer provides healthcare benefits to the employee.

If the absence is more than three consecutive days, the employer may require reasonable documentation that the absence is covered by the ordinance. See the text of the ordinance for details on what is considered reasonable documentation.