Public and private employers; earned paid sick time for employees.

Earned paid sick time. Requires public and privateemployers with 25 or more employees to provide those employees with earned paidsick time. The measure provides for an employee to earn at least one hour of paidsick leave benefit for every 30 hours worked. An employee shall not use morethan 40 hours of earned paid sick time in a year, unless the employer selects ahigher limit. Employees shall not be entitled to use accrued earned paid sicktime until the ninetieth calendar day following commencement of theiremployment, unless otherwise permitted by the employer. The bill provides thatearned paid sick time may be used (i) for an employee's mental or physicalillness, injury, or health condition; an employee's need for medical diagnosis,care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury, or healthcondition; or an employee's need for preventive medical care; (ii) to providecare to a family member under similar circumstances; (iii) when there is a closureof the employee's place of business or the employee's child's school or placeof care due to a public health emergency; or (iv) when an employee's oremployee's family member's presence in the community may jeopardize the healthof others because of their exposure to a communicable disease. The billauthorizes the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, in the case of a knowingviolation, to subject an employer to a civil penalty not to exceed $150 for thefirst violation, $300 for the second violation, and $500 for each successiveviolation, if the second or successive violation occurs within two years of theprevious violation. The Commissioner of Labor and Industry may instituteproceedings on behalf of an employee to enforce compliance with this measureand to collect specified amounts from the employer, which shall be awarded tothe employee. Alternatively, an aggrieved employee is authorized to bring acivil action against the employer in which he may recover double the amount ofany unpaid earned sick time and the amount of any actual damages suffered asthe result of the employer's violation. The measure also prohibits an employerof any size from discharging an employee for taking unpaid absences totalingmore than 16 hours in a year for a purpose described in clauses (i) through(iv). The measure has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2021.