SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — When Crystal Orozco got sick with the coronavirus last month, she missed nearly two weeks’ worth of her salary as a shift leader at a fast food restaurant and had to ask family members for a loan to help pay her rent.
“My check was literally $86,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god.’”
Now, Orozco is likely to get that money back. The California Legislature passed a bill Monday requiring many companies to give workers up to two weeks of paid time off if they get sick from the coronavirus. The bill is retroactive to Jan. 1, so Orozco could be eligible for backpay for the days she missed when she was sick.
At the start of the pandemic, state and federal laws required most employers to give workers paid time off for the coronavirus. But many of those laws expired as more people got vaccinated and case numbers declined. California's law expired in September.
Since then, omicron — a more contagious version of the coronavirus — has spread rapidly throughout the world. The variant set a record in California for the average number of new cases and contributed to an increase in hospitalizations, mostly among the unvaccinated population.
Labor unions have been pressuring their Democratic allies in the Legislature to renew the state's sick leave law — culminating in a deal reached last month between Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders. Lawmakers approved the bill Monday and sent it to Newsom, who is expected to sign it into law.
When he does, it will...
China has removed all medical advertisements on national television channels containing false claims as of the end of March, the National Radio and Television Administration said on Thursday. The ...