San Diego Labor Laws

California Labor Laws are changing faster than Human Resource Consultants and Labor LawAttorneys can keep up with.  It’s not just that there are new laws being passed, the issue is the lawmakers can’t even leave the new laws alone once they are passed.  San Diego’s new minimum wage and paid sick leave is a perfect example of how the lawmakers continue to change these laws once they have passed.

This article is going to address the newest of the new changes that have been made to these new laws.

On July 11th San Diego passed the new Paid Sick Leave Law as well as the new minimum wage law.  Now less than two months later for the purpose of clarifying these new San Diego regulations.  The “Implementing Ordinance” becomes effective September 2, 2016.

  • The reason for the “Implementing Ordinance was because these new laws created a lot of questions because of the way that they were written.  One of the main issues is that the law was not clear on several main points.  The result of this lack of clarity caused employers a lot of grief because they did not have a clear path to follow.  The lack of a clear path meant that employers would not be able to comply even though they may have wanted to.
  • Employers are to provide written notification concerning the new Paid Sick Leave to all company employees by October 1, 2016.  

In addition to the notification of the companies Paid Sick Leave Policy the following pieces of information must be provided to employees in writing as well.

  1. The employer’s legal name
  2. The Companies fictitious business name or names
  3. Addresses, and Telephone Numbers
  4. The employer’s requirements under the law concerning the Paid Sick Leave.  Said information would also spell out how the employer will comply.
  5. The notice must be in writing, and in each employee’s primary language, provided that said the language is spoken by at least five percent of the company’s workforce.
  6. This notice can be provided electronically. 

The new Implanting Ordnance Provides a cap on Paid Sick Leave of 80 hours.

Before the implanting Ordnance, there was no cap on the Paid Sick Leave.  This was one of the confusing and troubling aspects of the new law.  At least now employers do have a reasonable cap.  This law now looks more the Paid Sick Leave that is in effect in San Francisco.  The difference is that in the city of  San Francisco the employee can accrue more paid sick leave once they use some time. Thank it not so with the San Diego Paid Sick Leave.

One thing employers need to understand is that this law does not automatically set the cap.  The cap must be established and set by the employer in their Paid Sick Leave Policy.

The New Implanting Ordnance also allows employers to Front Load 40 hours of Paid Sick Leave.

This is another point of clarity that helps employers to implement this new Paid Sick Leave Law in a way that will benefit the employers because it gives them a path to follow.

Front loading the 40 hours of Paid Sick Leave will satisfy the accrual, but must be provided to all employees.  This applies to Regular Full-Time and Part-Time employees, or even temporary employees.

Increment of Use

Employers must allow employees to use the Paid Sick Leave time at a minimum of two hours.

This new law is just one example of why both Cal-OSHA and the Department of Labor agree that employers need the help of a Cal-OSHA Consulting firm and a Human Resource Company for the purpose of helping employers comply.

 CES Today has been helping employers since 1997, and if you should have any questions on this or any other topic relating to either Cal-OSHA Standards or any other compliance matter we would love to hear from you, we love questions.

Our motto is “We Make Compliance Easy!”