Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill SB 114 which reinstates up to 80 hours of COVID-19 related Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) for all employees working for California employers who employ more than 25 people.

The SPSL became effective February 19, is retroactive to January 1, 2022 and ends on September 30, 2022.

(as of January 4, 2022)

As we enter Year 3 of the COVID-19 pandemic, the regulatory situation in California has never been so confusing, inconsistent, and ever-changing. As the Omicron variant has come to dominate the U.S. landscape, the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to hear arguments on the federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s (“OSHA”) Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”) which seeks to implement a “vaccine or test” program for all employers with 100 or more employees in the United States.

Federal OSHA filed a notice with the Federal Register on November 4, 2021, announcing a new emergency temporary standard to protect more than 84 million workers from the spread of coronavirus on the job.  Under the standard, covered employers must develop, implement and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, unless they adopt a policy requiring employees to choose to either be vaccinated or undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work.