Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)

On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law the emergency Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). The FFCRA implements many changes to increase public health measures. The FFCRA temporarily requires most U.S. private employers to provide paid leave to employees for certain COVID-19-related reasons and expands the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to provide employees paid leave under the FMLA to care for a child as a result of school or child care closings due to a public health emergency. While employers are responsible for funding the paid leave, employers will be able to take tax credits for the paid leave provided to employees under the FFCRA.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the paid leave provisions of the FFCRA will take effect on April 1, 2020, and expire as of Dec. 31, 2020.

The FFCRA requires that all employers covered by the Act post a notice of the terms of existence and terms of the FFCRA no later than April 1, 2020. The notice must be placed in a conspicuous place on its premises. The notice needs to be displayed in a conspicuous place where employees can see it. If they are able to see it at the main office, it is not necessary to display the notice at your different worksite locations. If all of your employees regularly visit the lunchroom, then you can post all required notices there. If not, then you can post the notices in the break rooms on each floor or in another location where they can easily be seen by employees on each floor. Where an employer has employees reporting directly to work in several different buildings, the employer must post all required federal notices in each building, even if the buildings are located in the same general vicinity (e.g., in an industrial park or on a campus).

Of course, since a substantial number employees are teleworking, an employer may satisfy this requirement by emailing or direct mailing this notice to employees, or posting this notice on an employee information internal or external website.

At this time, there is no requirement that the notice be posted in any language other than English, nor any requirement to provide notice to recently laid-off workers.

The notice requirement applies to certain public sector employers and all private sector employers with fewer than 500 employees.

The most recent version of this notice was issued on March 25, 2020 and can be found by clicking here.

For questions about these requirements, please send an email to Doug Stuart at DStuart@aerlex.com or call 310-392-5200.