New York State just passed a law–effective March 12, 2021–that requires businesses to provide four hours of paid time off (PTO) for each Covid-19 vaccination an employee receives.
This means, with two shots required for Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, an employee receives eight hours of PTO, while if you opt for the one-and-done Johnson & Johnson vaccine, you receive four hours of PTO.
According to law firm Jackson Lewis, the rules are
- All New York employees must receive a paid leave of absence for “a sufficient period of time” not to exceed four hours per vaccine injection. In other words, employees may be entitled to up to eight hours of paid time off if receiving a two-injection COVID-19 vaccine;
- This leave must be paid at the employee’s regular rate of pay; and
- Employers cannot require employees to use other available leave (such as sick leave or vacation time) before providing this leave.
This law ends on December 31, 2022, so New York employees have time to get their vaccinations and get paid for them.
While New York is the only state (that I’m aware of) that made this a requirement, you need to pay up anyway if you make the Covid-19 vaccine mandatory. John Hyman, an employment attorney with Wickens Herzer Panza, says
To keep reading, click here: Paid Time Off For Covid-19 Vaccines? It’s the Law in NY and Elsewhere If You Mandate the Jab
As a New Yorker, who works in a front-facing people job, this is helpful for the employees, because most employers, here, care little about the safety and care of their employees. They only provided PPE and sanitation precautions because it became mandated. But what is funny, is that the vaccinations are still not available to the entire population but only certain individuals who qualify under the listed guidelines and only just this week allow grocery workers and teachers to get vaccinated. I personally feel that all employers should give paid time for getting the vaccination no matter whether they require it or not and offer accommodations for those who don’t want to be vaccinated. Anyone who doesn’t get vaccinated, should not expect to go back to pre-Covid-19 job status, without safety standards in place. I appreciate your information posted in this article which tells me that despite the claim by the federal government that all individuals will be vaccinated by May 1, 2021, we may all be waiting until 2022 for access to the vaccinated. It didn’t take that long when the polio vaccine was given as the entire public were required to go to the public health centers.
Where in the article did you see that it may be next year before everyone has access to a vaccine? Thank you.
The requirement to pay people goes through the end of 2022. I don’t have any specific timelines for vaccinations. I am hearing May or early summer, but I’m not an expert.
I am still stuck on how an employer could make an experimental “vaccine” that no one know how long it lasts and the makers can never be sued for mandatory, but I am glad people at least get their 4-8 hours to do it.
Employers have a duty under OSHA to provide safe workplaces. While no vaccine provides 100% protection from becoming infected with COVID-19, all of the approved ones prevent people from getting extremely ill, requiring hospitalization or dying. The Pfizer one has also been shown to prevent the fully-vaccinated from spreading the coronavirus. COVID-19 is highly-transmissible and potentially deadly. It would be remiss for employers not to require their employees to be vaccinated.
Is the state of New York reimbursing employers for this mandatory PTO? Does this apply to all employers in NY regardless of number of employees?