Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

SENATE BILL NO. 992
     September 11, 2024, Introduced by Senators ALBERT, BELLINO and HAUCK and referred to
        the Committee on Labor.
          A bill to amend 2018 PA 338, entitled
    "Earned sick time act,"
    by amending the title and sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, and
(MCL 408.961, 408.962, 408.963, 408.964, 408.965, 408.967,
968, 408.970, 408.971, and 408.974); and to repeal acts and
    parts of acts.
                    THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
                                         TITLE
       An initiation of legislation act to require certain employers
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 to provide workers certain employees with the right to earn sick
 time paid medical leave for personal or family health needs, as
 well as purposes related to domestic violence and sexual assault;
 and school meetings needed as the result of a child's disability,
 health issues or issues due to domestic violence and sexual
 assault; to specify the conditions for accruing and using earned
 sick time; to prohibit retaliation against an employee for
 requesting, exercising, or enforcing rights granted in this act;
 paid medical leave; to prescribe powers and duties of certain state
 departments, agencies, and officers; to provide for promulgation of
 rules; and to provide remedies and sanctions.
       Sec. 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
 "earned sick time act"."paid medical leave act".
       Sec. 2. As used in this act:
       (a) "Benefit year" means any consecutive 12-month period used
 by an employer to calculate an eligible employee's benefits.
       (b) (a) "Department" means the department of licensing and
 regulatory affairs.
       (c) (b) "Director" means the director of the department of
 licensing and regulatory affairs or his or her the director's
 designee.
       (c) "Domestic partner" means an adult in a committed
 relationship with another adult, including both same-sex and
 different-sex relationships. "Committed relationship" means one in
 which the employee and another individual share responsibility for
 a significant measure of each other's common welfare, such as any
 relationship between individuals of the same or different sex that
 is granted legal recognition by a state, political subdivision, or
 the District of Columbia as a marriage or analogous relationship,
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 including, but not limited to, a civil union.
       (d) "Domestic violence" has the same meaning means that term
 as provided defined in section 1 of 1978 PA 389, MCL 400.1501.
       (e) "Earned sick time" means time off from work that is
 provided by an employer to an employee, whether paid or unpaid,
 that can be used for the purposes described in subsection (1) of
 section 4 of this act.
       (e) (f) "Employee" "Eligible employee" means an individual
 engaged in service to an employer in the business of the employer ,
 except that employee does not include an individual employed by the
 United States government.and from whom an employer is required to
 withhold for federal income tax purposes. Eligible employee does
 not include any of the following:
       (i) An individual who is exempt from overtime requirements
 under section 13(a)(1) of the fair labor standards act, 29 USC
 213(a)(1).
       (ii) An individual who is not employed by a public agency, as
 that term is defined in section 3 of the fair labor standards act,
 29 USC 203, and who is covered by a collective bargaining agreement
 that is in effect.
       (iii) An individual employed by the United States government,
 another state, or a political subdivision of another state.
       (iv) An individual employed by an air carrier as a flight deck
 or cabin crew member that is subject to title II of the railway
 labor act, 45 USC 151 to 188.
       (v) An employee as described in section 201 of the railway
 labor act, 45 USC 181.
       (vi) An employee as defined in section 1 of the railroad
 unemployment insurance act, 45 USC 351.
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       (vii) An individual whose primary work location is not in this
 state.
       (viii) An individual whose minimum hourly wage rate is
 determined under section 4b of the improved workforce opportunity
 wage act, 2018 PA 337, MCL 408.934b.
       (ix) An individual described in section 29(1)(l) of the
 Michigan employment security act, 1936 (Ex Sess) PA 1, MCL 421.29.
       (x) An individual employed by an employer for 25 weeks or less
 in a calendar year for a job scheduled for 25 weeks or less.
       (xi) A variable hour employee as defined in 26 CFR 54.4980H-1.
       (xii) An individual who worked, on average, less than 25 hours
 per week during the immediately preceding calendar year.
       (f) (g) "Employer" means any person, firm, business,
 educational institution, nonprofit agency, corporation, limited
 liability company, government entity, or other entity that employs
 1 50 or more individuals. , except that employer Employer does not
 include the United States government, another state, or a political
 subdivision of another state.
       (g) (h) "Family member" includes all of the following:
       (i) (i) A biological, adopted or foster child, stepchild or
 legal ward, a child of a domestic partner, or a child to whom the
 eligible employee stands in loco parentis.
       (ii) (ii) A biological parent, foster parent, stepparent, or
 adoptive parent or a legal guardian of an eligible employee or an
 eligible employee's spouse or domestic partner or a person an
 individual who stood in loco parentis when the eligible employee
 was a minor child.
       (iii) (iii) A person An individual to whom the eligible employee
 is legally married under the laws of any state. or a domestic
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 partner.
       (iv) (iv) A grandparent.
       (v) (v) A grandchild.
       (vi) (vi) A biological, foster, or adopted sibling.
       (vii) Any other individual related by blood or affinity whose
 close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family
 relationship.
       (h) (i) "Health care professional" provider" means any of the
 following:that term as defined in section 101 of the family and
 medical leave act, 29 USC 2611.
       (i) Any person licensed under federal law or the law of this
 state to provide health care services, including, but not limited
 to, nurses, doctors, and emergency room personnel.
       (ii) A certified midwife.
       (j) "Retaliatory personnel action" means any of the following:
       (i) Denial of any right guaranteed under this act.
       (ii) A threat, discharge, suspension, demotion, reduction of
 hours, or other adverse action against an employee or former
 employee for exercise of a right guaranteed under this act.
       (iii) Sanctions against an employee who is a recipient of
 public benefits for exercise of a right guaranteed under this act.
       (iv) Interference with, or punishment for, an individual's
 participation in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or
 hearing under this act.
       (i) "Paid medical leave" means time off from work that is
 provided by an employer to an eligible employee that can be used
 for the purposes described in section 4(1).
       (j) (k) "Sexual assault" means any act that constitutes a
 violation of violates section 520b, 520c, 520d, 520e, 520f, or 520g
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 of the Michigan penal code, 1931 PA 328, MCL 750.520b, 750.520c,
 750.520d, 750.520e, 750.520f, and 750.520g.
       (l) "Small business" means an employer for which fewer than 10
 individuals work for compensation during a given week. In
 determining the number of individuals performing work for
 compensation during a given week, all individuals performing work
 for compensation on a full-time, part-time, or temporary basis
 shall be counted, including individuals made available to work
 through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or
 similar entity. An employer is not a small business if it
 maintained 10 or more employees on its payroll during any 20 or
 more calendar workweeks in either the current or the preceding
 calendar year.
       Sec. 3. (1) Each An employer shall provide earned sick time
 paid medical leave to each of the employer's eligible employees in
 this state.
       (a) Employees of a small business shall accrue a minimum of
 one hour of earned sick time for every 30 hours worked but shall
 not be entitled to use more than 40 hours of paid earned sick time
 in a year unless the employer selects a higher limit. If an
 employee of a small business accrues more than 40 hours of earned
 sick time in a calendar year, the employee shall be entitled to use
 an additional 32 hours of unpaid earned sick time in that year,
 unless the employer selects a higher limit. Employees of a small
 business must be entitled to use paid earned sick time before using
 unpaid earned sick time.
       (2) (b) All other employees shall Except as otherwise provided
 in subsection (3), an eligible employee must accrue a minimum paid
 medical leave at a rate of one not less than 1 hour of paid earned
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 sick time medical leave for every 30 35 hours worked. but shall An
 employer is not be entitled to use required to allow an eligible
 employee to accrue more than 72 1 hour of paid medical leave in a
 calendar week. An employer may limit an eligible employee's accrual
 of paid medical leave to not less than 40 hours of paid earned sick
 time per benefit year. , unless the employer selects a higher
 limit.An employer is not required to allow an eligible employee to
 carry over more than 40 hours of unused accrued paid medical leave
 from 1 benefit year to another benefit year. An employer is not
 required to allow an eligible employee to use more than 40 hours of
 paid medical leave in a single benefit year.
       (3) As an alternative to subsection (2), an employer may
 provide not less than 40 hours of paid medical leave to an eligible
 employee at the beginning of a benefit year. For eligible employees
 hired during a benefit year, an employer may prorate paid medical
 leave provided under this subsection. If an employer elects to
 provide paid medical leave to an eligible employee pursuant to this
 subsection, the employer is not required to allow the eligible
 employee to carry over any of that paid medical leave to another
 benefit year.
       (c) Earned sick time shall carry over from year to year, but a
 small business is not required to permit an employee to use more
 than 40 hours of paid earned sick time and 32 hours of unpaid
 earned sick time in a single year, and other employers are not
 required to permit an employee to use more than 72 hours of paid
 earned sick time in a single year.
       (4) (2) Earned sick time Paid medical leave as provided in
 this section shall begin begins to accrue on the effective date of
 this law, or upon commencement of the eligible employee's
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 employment, whichever is later. An eligible employee may use
 accrued earned sick time paid medical leave as it is accrued,
 except that an employer may require an eligible employee hired
 after April 1, 2019, to wait until the ninetieth calendar day after
 commencing employment before using accrued earned sick time.paid
 medical leave.
       (3) For purposes of subsection (1), "year" shall mean a
 regular and consecutive twelve-month period, as determined by an
 employer.
       (4) For purposes of earned sick time accrual under this act,
 an employee who is exempt from overtime requirements under section
 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 USC 213(a)(1), is
 assumed to work 40 hours in each workweek unless the employee's
 normal work week is less than 40 hours, in which case earned sick
 time accrues based upon that normal workweek.
       (5) An There is a rebuttable presumption that an employer
 other than a small business is in compliance with this section act
 if the employer provides any paid leave in at least the same
 amounts as that provided under this act that may be used for the
 same purposes and under the same conditions provided in this act
 and that is accrued at a rate equal to or greater than the rate
 described in subsections (1) and (2). An employer that is a small
 business is in compliance with this section if the employer
 provides paid leave in at least the same amounts as that provided
 under this act that may be used for the same purposes and under the
 same conditions provided in this act and that is accrued at a rate
 equal to or greater than the rate described in subsections (1) and
 (2) provided further that that employees of the small business are
 entitled to use paid earned sick time before using unpaid earned
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 sick time. For purposes of this subsection, "paid leave" includes
 but is not limited to paid vacation days, personal days, and paid
 time off.40 hours of paid leave to an eligible employee each
 benefit year.
       (6) An employer shall pay each eligible employee using paid
 earned sick time medical leave at a pay rate equal to the greater
 of either the normal hourly wage or base wage for that eligible
 employee or the minimum wage rate established under in section 4 of
 the improved workforce opportunity wage act, 2014 PA 138, MCL
 408.411 to 408.424, but not less than the minimum wage rate
 established in section 4 of the workforce opportunity wage act,
 2014 PA 138, MCL 408.414. For any employee whose hourly wage varies
 depending on the work performed, the "normal hourly wage" means the
 average hourly wage of the employee in the pay period immediately
 prior to the pay period in which the employee used paid earned sick
 time.2018 PA 337, MCL 408.934. An employer is not required to
 include overtime pay, holiday pay, bonuses, commissions,
 supplemental pay, piece-rate pay, or gratuities in the calculation
 of an eligible employee's normal hourly wage or base wage.
       (7) An employer shall not require an employee to search for or
 secure a replacement worker as a condition for using earned sick
 time.As used in this section:
       (a) "Hours worked" does not include, unless otherwise included
 by an employer, hours taken off from work by an eligible employee
 for paid leave.
       (b) "Paid leave" includes, but is not limited to, paid
 vacation days, paid personal days, and paid time off.
       Sec. 4. (1) An employer shall permit allow an eligible
 employee to use the earned sick time paid medical leave accrued
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 under section 3 for any of the following:
       (a) The eligible employee's mental or physical illness,
 injury, or health condition; medical diagnosis, care, or treatment
 of the eligible employee's mental or physical illness, injury, or
 health condition; or preventative medical care for the eligible
 employee.
       (b) For the The eligible employee's family member's mental or
 physical illness, injury, or health condition; medical diagnosis,
 care, or treatment of the eligible employee's family member's
 mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; or
 preventative medical care for a family member of the eligible
 employee.
       (c) If the eligible employee or the eligible employee's family
 member is a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault, for the
 medical care or psychological or other counseling for physical or
 psychological injury or disability; to obtain services from a
 victim services organization; to relocate due to domestic violence
 or sexual assault; to obtain legal services; or to participate in
 any civil or criminal proceedings related to or resulting from the
 domestic violence or sexual assault.
       (d) For meetings at a child's school or place of care related
 to the child's health or disability, or the effects of domestic
 violence or sexual assault on the child; or
       (d) (e) For closure of the eligible employee's place of
 business primary workplace by order of a public official due to a
 public health emergency; for an eligible employee's need to care
 for a child whose school or place of care has been closed by order
 of a public official due to a public health emergency; or when if
 it has been determined by the hea