By WECT Staff | January 31, 2021 at 1:56 PM EST – Updated February 1 at 4:33 AM
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – COVID-19 has led to a number of unprecedented challenges for both employees and employers. In April of 2020 the federal government created federal legislation requiring employers to provide paid leave for their workers, however, in December, those rules expired.
Now, the Wilmington City Council is considering a resolution that would provide paid leave or advance leave to city employees during the pandemic.
“On March 17, 2020, City Council passed a resolution to allow the City Manager to advance leave to certain qualifying employees who had exhausted all of their other pad leave. The very next day on March 18, 2020, the President of the United States signed federal legislation that required employers to provide certain paid leave and protected leave to qualifying employees. That federal legislation was effective from April 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020, and it has since expired,” according to the council’s agenda.
The lapsing of the federal requirements have proven difficult for some and the city is now looking to augment their own policies to help.
“As the pandemic continues, without the continued leave requirements from the federal government in place, some City employees who cannot work from home may be required to use significant amounts of accrued leave time to stay out of work to care for sick family members, voluntarily quarantine themselves due to exposure to the virus or being in a high risk category, or to care for minor children who are out of school and for which they cannot find childcare,” according to council’s agenda.
If approved the city would:
- Provide 10 days of paid leave to qualifying employees for health-related reasons
- Provide 10 days of advanced leave to qualifying employees who have exhausted all of their leave and must be out of work for childcare reasons.
The benefits would be available through June 30, 2021 and any advanced leave would be paid back to the city through payroll deduction. Further, any employee that provides proof of vaccination would be granted four hours of paid leave as an incentive.
The City Council will meet on Tuesday at the Wilmington Convention Center.
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