SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) -- As hospital capacity in the Bay Area decreases with the rise in coronavirus cases, the city of San Jose extended its COVID-19 paid sick leave protections for residents who continue to work in essential services.
In an effort to fill the need left by the federal government, San Jose City Council unanimously approved extending its local paid sick leave benefits until June 30.
“Here at the city we had our last city council meeting on December 15th and we knew that this was it, that this was expiring, the senate did not want to take this up, the federal government couldn’t agree on how to extend this,” Councilmember Maya Esparza said.
“Sometimes we’re the first line of defense and sometimes we’re the last line of defense,” Esparza added. “And in this case, we were the last line of defense after the federal government really failed our people by not being able to agree.”
The new emergency ordinance will give employees 80 hours of paid sick leave per year and part-time employees two weeks worth of leave.
Back in March, federal officials first enacted such protections through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) which expired on Dec. 31, 2020, and with no intentions of extending.
“At the end of the day, the local government has to make sure that its residents are taken care of, we’ve been waiting for the federal government to step up, they’ve been helpful to some extent, but there are always some gaps and of course in the sick leave ordinance, that’s where we see the most glaring gaps of all,” Councilmember Magdalena Carrasco said.
“This is really an attempt not to just take care of our folks who are sick but it's also to make sure that the public health is guaranteed,” Carrasco added. “You don’t want someone flipping your burgers while they’re sick or delivering your groceries to the front of your door if they’re sick, we want to make sure that people who are sick, who have this very contagious virus [COVID-19] have an opportunity to stay home.”
Just last month, Councilmembers Ezparza, Carrasco, and Sylvia Arenas led the effort to help San Jose residents by extending the FFCRA, as they feared the federal government would fail to extend the protections.
In addition, under the new emergency ordinance, there is a private right of action to enforce paid sick leave benefits.
San Jose enacted it's own COVID-19 paid sick leave ordinance back on April 7, 2020 which was initially only supposed to be an addition to federal help -- under the local ordinance workers not covered by the FFCRA were granted protection.
“Most of our members are caregivers, low-wage earners, and with the surge now they’re so so impacted,” said Isabella, a member of the Pilipino Association of Workers and Immigrants.
“This ordinance is important to them because at least they’re confident that they can stay home, they can isolate, they can help take care of themselves knowing that they will get paid and not being stressed about how to pay the bills.”
For San Jose resident Rosa Espinoza - who has worked at McDonald's for 20 years - the pandemic has only intensified the need for paid sick leave for those still working to serve the public.
“As it is, workers hardly have any sick days to start with especially in fast food,” said Espinoza through a translator.
“We get about three days a year and right now with the pandemic something that is happening is that workers are being told to go home even if they have a little cough and sometimes they’re not even allowed to use their paid sick leave because managers say they have to call ahead of time.”
Under California law, full-time employees can earn a minimum of 24 hours of paid sick leave every year or earn a minimum of one hour paid leave for every 30 hours worked.
Businesses with more than 500 employees or fewer than 50 employees were not recommended to offer additional paid time off under the FFCRA, but were covered by San Jose’s new emergency ordinance with no exemptions.
Employees will also have the chance to use sick time to care for another person but will only be paid two-thirds of the employees regular pay rate up to $2,000.
According to the ordinance, an employer must provide each employee paid sick time if:
- An employee is subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19,
- Advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to COVID-19,
- Experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking medical diagnosis,
- An employee is caring for another individual in COVID-19 isolation
- An employee is caring for a child whose school has been closed due to COVID-19 and no other childcare option is available.
As it currently stands, Santa Clara County totaled 78,683 COVID-19 cases with 1,362 new cases and a total of 815 COVID-19 related deaths.
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