Trump Administration Scales Back Paid Leave in Coronavirus Relief Law

But companies with fewer than 50 employees could decline to provide paid leave for child care if doing so would “cause the small business to cease operating,” if workers’ absences would pose “a substantial risk” to the company, or if there were not enough workers “able, willing and qualified” to fill in for the person seeking leave.

Health care providers and first responders, as well as certain federal government employees, can also be denied the paid leave.

Democrats also raised alarm that the new guidelines added requirements that were not in the original law, including that employers could ask employees for certification of the need to take leave, and that employers needed to have work for the employee to do in order for workers to qualify for leave.

Senator Patty Murray of Washington and Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, both Democrats who pressed for the paid leave expansion, on Wednesday urged Eugene Scalia, the labor secretary, to rescind some guidelines. In a letter, they wrote to Mr. Scalia that the guidelines “violate congressional intent” and “contradict the plain language” of the legislation.

“Given that congressional intent was to respond to the unprecedented nature of this pandemic,” the lawmakers wrote, the Labor Department had “the responsibility to provide the maximum flexibility for workers during this crisis — not restricting their leave to when employers grant their consent.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/politics/coronavirus-paid-leave.html