Compliance Stuff

  Effective November 21, Massachusetts employees will be permitted to use their sick time to “address the employee’s own physical and mental health needs, and those of their spouse, if the employee or the employee’s spouse experiences pregnancy loss or a failed assisted reproduction, adoption or surrogacy.” The  enacting bill  also restates existing law allowing employees to use sick time to attend routine medical appointments for the employee or their child, spouse, parent, or parent of their spouse and to address the psychological, physical, or legal effects of domestic violence. The Earned Sick Leave laws in Massachusetts state that employers must allow employees to accrue a minimum of 1 hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to at least 40 hours per year.  Source(s): ArentFox Schiff LLP , received on October 21, 2024.

  On September 13, 2024, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (the “SJC”) ruled that the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (the “Act”) does not guarantee the accrual of benefits such as sick leave, vacation leave and length-of-service credit during a period of paid family or medical leave (“PFML”). Instead, the Act mandates only that employees return from leave to the same or equivalent position that they held at the commencement of leave. Summary of the Case In  Bodge & others vs. Commonwealth & others ¸ plaintiffs represented a class of state troopers who sought to take PFML in connection with the birth of a child. The plaintiffs alleged that denying their right to accrue employee benefits while on leave violated the Act . The SJC disagreed, finding that the statutory language says otherwise – it does not confer accrual rights on employees but rather requires that employees be put back to the same or equivalent position that they held when their le...