OPM Issues Guidance on Emergency Paid Sick Leave

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Wednesday released guidance to agencies on implementing the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA) provision of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). The guidance includes a summary of the statutory and regulatory requirements for federal employees to access their paid leave.

According to the guidance, with few exceptions, employees of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches are provided up to two weeks (80 hours) of paid sick leave in specified circumstances related to COVID-19 in addition to other paid leave benefits. The leave is provided to employees without minimum service requirements and separated employees are ineligible.

Employees may use the leave for the following circumstances:

1.       The employee is subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID–19,

2.       The employee has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID–19,

3.       The employee is experiencing symptoms of COVID–19 and seeking a medical diagnosis,

4.       The employee is caring for an individual who is subject to an order as described in paragraph (1) or has been advised as described in paragraph (2),

5.       The employee is caring for his or her son or daughter if the school or place of care of the son or daughter has been closed, or the child care provider of such son or daughter is unavailable, for reasons related to COVID–19,

6.       The employee is experiencing any other substantially similar condition as specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor.

Employees are limited to 80 hours of EPSLA leave even if the employee has changed jobs or has multiple qualifying circumstances.

Part time employees, which include employees with an intermittent work schedule, are eligible for the number of hours of EPSLA paid sick leave that is equal to the number of hours that the employee works, on average, over a 2-week period.

Employees may use leave for any time they would have been otherwise scheduled to work in the same hourly increments which the employee was scheduled. On days the employee would otherwise have off, such as holidays, EPSLA does not need to be taken.

Employees may use the leave intermittently or continuously. Employees can also reach out to their agency leaders to have the leave retroactively applied.