With “Technical Corrections” Made, the Coronavirus Bill Makes its Way to the Senate

After the House of Representatives voted on and passed the initial version of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act on March 14, the House issued a revised bill on March 16 to make “technical corrections” and address concerns relating to the Bill’s impact on small businesses.  With respect to employer requirements under the revised legislation, the revisions are fairly substantial:

• The Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act, providing twelve weeks of paid job-protected leave and ten weeks of paid leave, has been limited to employees who are unable to perform any work due to a need to care for a minor child if the child’s school or place of child care has been closed or is unavailable due to a public health emergency. Under the prior version of the bill, these benefits were to also go to employees who had been instructed to self-quarantine or who had to care for family members instructed to self-quarantine. Further, paid leave benefits under this section, which are 2/3 of the employee’s ordinary rate of pay, are now capped at $200 per day and $10,000 in the aggregate, bringing the benefit in line with the amount the government will be reimbursed to employers.
• The Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act has also been narrowed. While employers must provide up to two (2) weeks of paid sick leave at 100% of the employee’s regular rate of pay, the revised bill caps the benefit for employees who take sick leave as a result of illness and/or quarantine at $511 per day.  Similarly, employees who take leave to care for others or for their children due to school closures will receive no more than $200 per day.  The amount of reimbursement from the government does not appear to have changed from $200 per day.

Ultimately, these modifications to the bill passed by a unanimous vote and the bill is proceeding to the Senate, where a vote has not yet been scheduled.  Although it’s uncertain whether the Senate will make substantial revisions to the bill, or none at all, the bill will take centre stage of the Senate floor this week.

For more legal information in regard to the Novel COVID-19 outbreak, please check out our COVID-19 resource page here »