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Safe Harbor for the New Massachusetts Paid Sick Time Leave Law

As you may know on November 4, 2014 Massachusetts approved the proposed Paid Sick Time Law which requires Massachusetts employers with 11 or more employees to provide paid sick time leave to full time employees.

This new law was due to go into effect on July 1, 2015 however, due to the concern of many business leaders the Attorney General’s Office announced on Monday that the law will not go into effect for employers who satisfy the “safe harbor” requirements until January 1, 2016.

This will give those employers who are already offering paid sick leave more time to work through how they will implement these changes into current policies. The safe harbor only extends to employers with a paid time off policy in place by May 1, 2015 that provides at least 30 hours of paid time off during the 2015 calendar year.These employers are considered to be in compliance with the Paid Sick Time Law, but in order to remain compliant employers must apply the Paid Sick Time Law’s non-retaliation and non-interference provisions with respect to any paid time off taken by employees between July 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015.

Organizations that plan to partake in the safe harbor should ensure that managers, HR employees, and others who administer employees paid time off are aware of these non interference and non-retaliation requirements and act accordingly.

Need assistance understanding how this affects your business and developing a policy that will comply with more the requirements of the Paid Sick Time Law give HR Synergy a call or listen to our podcast from April 2, 2015.

Written by Haley Deeb, Human Resource Intern for HR Synergy, LLC