D.C. Paid COVID-19 Vaccination and Recovery Leave
On November 18, 2021, the District of Columbia amended the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act to provide paid leave for COVID-19 vaccinations and recovery. Effective immediately, the amendment requires D.C. employers to provide up to 2 hours of paid leave for an employee or a child who lives with the employee to receive an injection of the COVID-19 vaccine (including boosters) and up to 8 hours of paid leave per injection during the 24-hour period following the 2-hour vaccination leave period in order to recover from the side effects from the vaccination. Employers are required to provide a total of 48 hours of vaccination and recovery leave in a year.
To be eligible for this leave, an employee must be employed by the employer for at least 15 days before the request for leave. A “child” means a child under the age of 18 who lives with the employee and for whom the employee permanently assumes and discharges parental responsibility or a foster child under the age of 18 years.
Employers must provide paid vaccination and recovery leave in addition to any other paid leave they provide employees under an existing leave policy. However, employers are not required to provide additional leave if they already have a paid leave policy that exclusively and expressly provides for COVID-19 vaccination and recovery leave in amounts greater or equal to the amounts stated above, and does not reduce other available paid leave.
Employers may require employees to provide up to 48 hours notice of the need for leave. In addition, employers may require that employees provide reasonable documentation upon return to work of the need for leave, which may include a vaccination record or other documentation attesting to the date and time of the vaccine injection. Employers cannot require employees to search for or identify another employee to perform the work of the employee taking leave.
Federal Contractor Vaccination Mandate Enjoined Nationwide
On December 7, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia issued an order enjoining the enforcement of the federal contractor vaccination mandate on a nationwide basis. This means that federal contractors and subcontractors are not currently required to comply with the January 18, 2022 deadline to have all covered employees be fully vaccinated. We anticipate that the government will seek to reverse the order.
Meredith S. Campbell
Chair Employment and Labor Group
Chair Corporate Investigations, Governance & Risk Management
Email mcampbell@shulmanrogers.com T(301)255-0550
