As of July 1, 2022, all private sector employees became eligible to receive up to 64 hours of sick time each year.
While many employees feel like,’ Ok, great what’s the big deal,’’ many members of our local community have not had access to this benefit at their workplace. If they had to be out because of illness, they took this time unpaid if their employer did not offer PTO or vacation time.
The Healthy Workplaces Act gives employees the time off they need to take care of their wellness as well as their families.
The act includes a strong retaliation clause that ensures no adverse employment action can be taken when this time is used.
Another great aspect is that the employee is allowed to take this time off without consideration of business needs, which allows the employee to manage their sick time as needed. Before having the HWA in place, if an employee requested time off for a doctor’s appointment or their child was sick, this request could have been denied based on the organization’s business need (no coverage, peak hours, etc.) and possible disciplinary action if the time was taken.
Let’s put this into perspective and look at a scenario before the HWA is enacted. You call in sick because your child has a very high fever and you need to take the day off to care for them. Before the HWA, this could lead to a day without pay and the employer can say since you have called in a couple of times over the last several months for various reasons, I am now going to start...
On September 14, 2026, the Department of Justice announced that Accenture Federal Services, Accenture plc, and Accenture LLP agreed to pay $25 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that ...