Sec. 11.1. Title.
Sec. 11.2. Definitions.
Sec. 11.3. Accrual of Paid Sick Leave.
Sec. 11.4. Use of Paid Sick Leave.
Sec. 11.5. Notice and Posting of Rights.
Sec. 11.6. Employer Records.
Sec. 11.7. Exercise of Rights Protected; Retaliation Prohibited.
Sec. 11.8. Implementation and Enforcement.
Sec. 11.9. Waiver Through Collective Bargaining.
Sec. 11.10. Other Legal Requirements.
Sec. 11.11. More Generous Employer Leave Policies.
Sec. 11.12. Operative Date.
Sec. 11.13. Preemption.
Sec. 11.14. City Undertaking Limited to Promotion of the General Welfare.
Sec. 11.15. Severability.
Sec. 11.16. Amendment by the Board of Supervisors.
*Editor’s Notes:
Former Administrative Code Chapter 12W (“Sick Leave”) was redesignated as Labor and Employment Code Article 11 by Ord. 221-23, File No. 230835, approved November 3, 2023, effective December 4, 2023, and operative January 4, 2024.
Proposition F, approved November 7, 2006, added provisions designated as a new Administrative Code Ch. 12W (now at Labor and Employment Code Article 11), Sick Leave, to read as herein set out. At the request of the city, former Administrative Code Ch. 12W, pertaining to the San Francisco Slavery Disclosure Ordinance, was renumbered as Administrative Code Ch. 12Y, and remains so.
This Article shall be known as the “Sick Leave Ordinance.”
(Added as Administrative Code Sec. 12W.1 by Proposition F, 11/7/2006; redesignated by Ord. 221-23, File No. 230835, App. 11/3/2023, Eff. 12/4/2023, Oper. 1/4/2024)
For purposes of this Article, the following definitions apply.
(a) “Agency” shall mean the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement or any department or office that by ordinance or resolution is designated the successor to the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement.
(b) “City” shall mean the City and County of San Francisco.
(c) “Employee” shall mean any person who is employed within the geographic boundaries of the City by an employer, including part-time and temporary employees. “Employee” includes a participant in a Welfare-to-Work Program when the participant is engaged in work activity that would be considered “employment” under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., and any applicable U.S. Department of Labor Guidelines. “Welfare-to-Work Program” shall include any public assistance program administered by the Human Services Agency, including but not limited to CalWORKS and the County Adult Assistance Program (CAAP), and any successor programs that are substantially similar to them, that require a public assistance applicant or recipient to work in exchange for their grant.
(d) “Employer” shall mean any person, as defined in Section 18 of the California Labor Code, including corporate officers or executives, who directly or indirectly or through an agent or any other person, including through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity, employs or exercises control over the wages, hours, or working conditions of an employee.
(e) “Paid sick leave” shall mean paid “sick leave” as defined in California Labor Code § 233(b)(4), except that the definition extends beyond the employee’s own illness, injury, medical condition, need for medical diagnosis, care including preventive care, or treatment, or other medical reason, to also encompass time taken off work by an employee for the purpose of providing care or assistance to other persons, as specified further in Section 11.4(a), with an illness, injury, medical condition, need for medical diagnosis, care including preventive care, or treatment, or other medical reason. “Paid sick leave” shall also include time taken off work for purposes related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, suffered by an employee, as specified in Section 11.4(b), and for purposes related to bone marrow donation or organ donation, as specified in Section 11.4(c).
(f) “Small business” shall mean an employer for which fewer than ten persons work for compensation during a given week. In determining the number of persons performing work for an employer during a given week, all persons performing work for compensation on a full-time, part-time, or temporary basis shall be counted, including persons made available to work through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity.
(Added as Administrative Code Sec. 12W.2 by Proposition F, 11/7/2006; amended by Proposition E, 6/7/2016; redesignated by Ord. 221-23, File No. 230835, App. 11/3/2023, Eff. 12/4/2023, Oper. 1/4/2024)
(a) For employees working for an employer on or before the operative date of this Article, paid sick leave shall begin to accrue as of the operative date of this Article. For employees hired by an employer after the operative date of this Article but before January 1, 2017, paid sick leave shall begin to accrue 90 days after the commencement of employment with the employer, or on January 1, 2017, whichever date is earlier. For employees hired on or after January 1, 2017, paid sick leave shall begin to accrue on commencement of employment with the employer.
(b) For every 30 hours worked after paid sick leave begins to accrue for an employee, the employee shall accrue one hour of paid sick leave. Paid sick leave shall accrue only in hour-unit increments; there shall be no accrual of a fraction of an hour of paid sick leave.
(c) An employer may, in the employer’s discretion, make available to an employee a lump sum of paid sick leave at the beginning of each year of employment, calendar year, or other 12-month period (an “upfront allocation”). In such cases, the Agency shall treat the upfront allocation as an advance on paid sick leave to be accrued under this Section 11.3; that is, accrual of paid sick leave under this Section would temporarily halt and the employee would not continue to accrue paid sick leave until after the employee has worked the number of hours necessary to have accrued the upfront allocation amount, at which point the employee would then resume accruing paid sick leave under this Section. This subsection (c) shall not be construed to prevent an employer, in the employer’s discretion, from advancing paid sick leave to an employee at other times, and shall not be construed to limit the amount of paid sick leave that may be advanced to an employee. Any advance of paid sick leave shall affect the employee’s accrual of paid sick leave under this Section 11.3 as described in this subsection (c). Any advance of paid sick leave shall occur pursuant to an employer’s written policy or. absent an applicable written policy, shall be documented in writing to the affected employee.
(d) For employees of small businesses, there shall be a cap of 40 hours of accrued paid sick leave. For employees of other employers, there shall be a cap of 72 hours of accrued paid sick leave. Accrued paid sick leave for employees carries over from year to year (whether calendar year or fiscal year), but is limited to the aforementioned caps.
(e) If an employer has a paid leave policy, such as a paid time off policy, that makes available to employees an amount of paid leave that may be used for the same purposes as paid sick leave under this Article and that is sufficient to meet the requirements for accrued paid sick leave as stated in subsections (a)-(c), the employer is not required to provide additional paid sick leave.
(f) On the same written notice that an employer is required to provide under Section 246(h) of the California Labor Code, an employer shall set forth the amount of paid sick leave that is available to the employee under this Section 11.3, or paid time off an employer provides in lieu of sick leave. If an employer provides unlimited paid sick leave or unlimited paid time off to an employee, the employer may satisfy this subsection by indicating on the notice or the employee’s itemized wage statement “unlimited.” This subsection (f) shall apply only to employers that are required by state law to provide such notice to employees regarding paid sick leave available under state law.
(g) An employer is not required to provide financial or other reimbursement to an employee upon the employee’s termination, resignation, retirement, or other separation from employment, for accrued paid sick leave that the employee has not used. But if an employee separates from an employer for any reason and is rehired by the employer within one year from the date of separation, previously accrued and unused paid sick leave shall be reinstated. The employee shall be entitled to use the previously accrued and unused paid sick leave and to accrue additional paid sick leave upon rehiring. This subsection (g) shall not apply if and to the extent that, upon the employee’s separation from employment, the employee received cash compensation for previously accrued and unused paid sick leave.
(h) For the purposes of this Article, an employer shall calculate paid sick leave using any of the following calculations:
(1) Paid sick leave for nonexempt employees shall be calculated in the same manner as the regular rate of pay for the workweek in which the employee uses paid sick leave, whether or not the employee actually works overtime in that workweek.
(2) Paid sick leave for nonexempt employees shall be calculated by dividing the employee’s total wages, not including overtime premium pay, by the employee’s total hours worked in the full pay periods of the prior 90 days of employment.
(3) Paid sick leave for exempt employees shall be calculated in the same manner as the employer calculates wages for other forms of paid leave time.
(4) In no circumstance may paid sick leave be provided at less than the minimum wage rate required by the Minimum Wage Ordinance, Labor and Employment Code Article 1.
(Added as Administrative Code Sec. 12W.3 by Proposition F, 11/7/2006; amended by Proposition E, 6/7/2016; redesignated by Ord. 221-23, File No. 230835, App. 11/3/2023, Eff. 12/4/2023, Oper. 1/4/2024)
(a) An employee may use paid sick leave not only when he or she is ill or injured or for the purpose of the employee’s receiving medical care, treatment, or diagnosis, as specified more fully in California Labor Code Section 233(b)(4) and Section 11.2(e) of this Code, but also to aid or care for the following persons when they are likewise ill or injured or receiving medical care, treatment, or diagnosis: Child; parent; legal guardian or ward; sibling; grandparent; grandchild; and spouse, registered domestic partner under any state or local law, or designated person. The employee may use all or any percentage of his or her paid sick leave to aid or care for the aforementioned persons.
(1) “Child,” “parent,” “sibling,” “grandparent,” “grandchild.” The aforementioned child, parent, sibling, grandparent, and grandchild relationships include not only biological relationships but also relationships resulting from adoption; step-relationships; and foster care relationships.
(2) “Child” also includes a child of a domestic partner and a child of a person standing in loco parentis.
(3) “Parent” also includes a person who stood in loco parentis when the employee was a minor child, and a person who is a biological, adoptive, or foster parent, stepparent, or guardian of the employee’s spouse or registered domestic partner.
(4) “Designated person.” If the employee has no spouse or registered domestic partner, the employee may designate one person as to whom the employee may use paid sick leave to aid or care for the person. The opportunity to make such a designation shall be extended to the employee no later than the date on which the employee has worked 30 hours after paid sick leave begins to accrue pursuant to Section 11.3(a). There shall be a window of 10 work days for the employee to make this designation. Thereafter, the opportunity to make such a designation, including the opportunity to change such a designation previously made, shall be extended to the employee on an annual basis, with a window of 10 work days for the employee to make the designation.
(b) In addition to the purposes for which an employee may use paid sick leave under subsection (a), an employee who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking may use paid sick leave for the purposes described in Sections 230(c) and 231.1(a) of the California Labor Code.
(c) An employee may use paid sick leave for purposes related to donating the employee’s bone marrow or an organ of the employee to another person. Further, an employee may use paid sick leave to care for or assist a person, as specified in Section 11.4(a), for purposes related to that person’s donating bone marrow or an organ to another person.
(d) An employee shall be entitled to use accrued paid sick leave beginning on the 90th day of employment, after which day the employee may use paid sick leave as it is accrued.
(e) An employer may not require, as a condition of an employee’s taking paid sick leave, that the employee search for or find a replacement worker to cover the hours during which the employee is on paid sick leave.
(f) An employer may not require, as a condition of an employee’s taking paid sick leave, that the employee take paid sick leave in increments of more than one hour, unless the Agency, by rule or regulation, authorizes a larger increment in particular circumstances provided that the increment is no larger than the employer may require under state law.
(g) An employer may require employees to give reasonable notification of an absence from work for which paid sick leave is or will be used.
(h) An employer may only take reasonable measures to verify or document that an employee’s use of paid sick leave is lawful.
(i) An employer shall provide payment for sick leave taken by an employee no later than the payday for the next regular payroll period after the sick leave was taken.
(Added as Administrative Code Sec. 12W.4 by Proposition F, 11/7/2006; amended by Proposition E, 6/7/2016; redesignated by Ord. 221-23, File No. 230835, App. 11/3/2023, Eff. 12/4/2023, Oper. 1/4/2024)
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