Utilizing the Extended Family Leave in Family First Coronavirus Response Ac for Your Employees

The Family First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was the second legislative initiative passed by Congress to address COVID-19. Many businesses utilize the FFCRA, as it benefits employees who have been in and out of operations for specific reasons.? 

Unfortunately, not many practices maximize the Extended Family and Medical Leave Act (EFMLA). But dental professionals and other workers dealing with homeschooling or distance learning amid the pandemic may bring risk and instability in dental practice operations. Keeping yourself abreast with the ins and outs of the FFCRA will be crucial for you and your employees. 

An overview of the FFCRA 

The FFCRA addresses the inability of employees to perform at work due to COVID-19 pandemic related reasons. This bill grants replacement wages built around an emergency paid family leave portion or aspect of the FFCRA and an expanded family and medical leave feature.? 

There are six qualifying grounds for an employee to be eligible for either sick leave or family leave: 

1.  1. The employee is subjected to local, federal, or state quarantine. 
2. A healthcare provider advised the employee to self-quarantine.
3. The employee is undergoing symptoms and seeking an examination for COVID-19.
4. The employee is attending for an individual who is subjected to federal, state or local quarantine.
5. The employee is attending for son(s) or daughter(s) if the school/childcare facility is closed or the childcare provider is unavailable.
6. The employee encounters any other substantially-related situation defined by Health and Human Services (HHS) with the Department of Treasury or Labor. 

The first three qualifications deal with the employees themselves. The other items tackle providing care for the employees’ children and family members.? 

Eligibility for the benefits is limited to the six items mentioned above. 

Any of these qualifying reasons would allow someone to be eligible for the sick leave aspect and the wage replacement associated with it. Number five serves as the only qualifying reason for the family care leave.? 

To qualify for the family care leave, an employee must do the following:? 

• attend to a family member on quarantine 
• care for their child whose school has closed or if childcare providers are unavailable. 

With schools resuming operations and some opting for online learning in response to the pandemic, employers and employees find ways to resolve this matter.? 

An employee may also perform telework or work from home. It means that the employer allows their team members to perform specific tasks or work for a certain number of hours from home. However, if circumstances still do not permit this option, this is where the expanded family and medical leave comes into play. 

The expansion of the Family Medical Leave Act is only subject to employees that have worked with the employer for 30 days or more. However, they cannot work or even perform telework because of previously stated reasons, particularly childcare. 

Using the FFCRA family leave for children’s e-Learning 

For employees whose child is undergoing online classes, certain circumstances can explain how they can qualify for the family leave: 

1.  The school must be closed. It is not about whether the child needs supervision to learn or not; the school should be non-operational. e-Learning or online classes are an option to continue their child’s education until classes resume. The employee would likely qualify to receive the FFCRA family leave to oversee their child’s need for virtual learning at home.? 
2. For children taking hybrid classes—wherein they go to school and take online courses alternately—parents can be home on the days they need to supervise their children. Employees under this situation can go to work when their children are scheduled to go to school. 

The family leave does not apply if the employee opts to stay at home for online classes while schools remain open. The Department of Labor decided that employees have to send their kids back to school once open.? 

If an employer chooses to qualify a worker under the said circumstances for the family leave, here are the things that employee could receive as published by the US Department of Labor: 

• A maximum of 10 weeks additional on top of the two weeks under the emergency paid sick leave portion. 
• An employee can receive two-thirds of their pay, with a cap of $200 per day, and the aggregate half is $10,000 in total. 

Going the exemption route 

The family leave under the FFCRA accommodates employees’ responsibilities toward their families; however, there are still some exemptions under this portion, especially if the business’s viability is at risk. 

Here are the conditions where employers can apply for an exemption: 

• The business cannot pay for the covered leave of the worker, 
• The employee requesting the leave is the only one that performs a specialized job role, or? 
• The business will not be able to operate if its workers are on leave. (e.g., For small businesses, if six out of eight employees ask for family leave and are qualified based on the situations mentioned.) 

The Department of Labor does not need to receive any applications from businesses. However, employers have to keep the documents or files concerning the exemption. 

 The bottom line 

All of us are dealing with the impact of COVID-19. Potential issues with schools and childcare schedules are inevitable. One cannot simply decide to keep the staff who do not have childcare or online schooling matters. Also, consider that some employees who have these concerns may be an asset to your practice. The FFCRA expanded family and medical leave allows you to support your employees in this crucial time. 

Learning to cope and understand the employees and utilize the FFCRA can serve your practice to become flexible and successful in surpassing today’s challenges and future endeavors to come. 

Source: 

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/pandemic/ffcra-employee-paid-leave#_ftn2