Texas Employment Law 2019: October

In October 2019, the San Antonio City Council approved the following revisions to the city’s sick and safe leave ordinance:

• Identifies the leave as sick and safe time (previously categorized as earned paid sick and safe leave) and clarifies that leave is a fringe benefit, not a wage or salary component.
• Redefines covered employees and no longer requires an employee to have worked 80 hours in a year.
• Includes a worker who is typically based outside of the city (the employee works outside the geographical boundaries of the city of San Antonio for more than 50 percent of work hours in a year) and performs work in the city on an occasional basis as a covered employee under the ordinance if they perform more than 240 hours of work in the city within a year.
• Expands the definition of family member to include domestic partners and same-sex significant others, household members, and more. The revisions also liberally interpret the concept of parenthood.
• The accrual rate is modified to permit employees to accrue one hour of paid sick and safe leave for every 30 hours worked with a baseline amount of up to 56 hours per year.
• Payment of accrued leave is not required upon separation or rehire and may not be calculated as an increase to salary or wages for an employee.
• Modifies usage requirements by providing that an established eligibility period may not exceed 90 days from the start of employment to when the leave may be used.

The revisions also modify the following:

• Repercussions for abuse of sick and safe leave;
• Confidentiality and nondisclosure terms;
• When an employer provides a more generous policy;
• Notice, recordkeeping, and signage requirements; and
• Enforcement, violations, and penalties.

The ordinance continues to be effective until December 1, 2019. See the revisions here.