New York’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) adopts final regulations on Paid Family Leave (PFL)

What You Should Know:

1. An employee is covered under NY PFL if some of his or her work is performed in New York and the employee is either: (1) based in New York; (2) controlled from New York; or (3) lives in New York.
2. An employee may be able to take leave in 2017 under company policies (or FMLA) and then be entitled to leave and benefits under NY PFL for the same qualifying event in 2018. For example: An employee who receives a new child on August 1, 2017, could take bonding leave under company policies (which may provide a pay benefit) and/or FMLA in 2017, then take up to 8 weeks of bonding leave under NY PFL any time from January 1 through July 31, 2018 (52 weeks following the child’s birth)
   
3. There is no requirement in either the statute or the regulations for employers to give notice to their employees of NY PFL payroll deductions! (Let’s be clear, we recommend employers should, in fact, provide notice of the employees’ contributions and other aspects of NY PFL so that employees have the facts and appropriate expectations. We can help with sample employee communications, which will get more specific as we get closer to program launch.
   
4. An employee working simultaneously for more than one New York employer will have NY PFL contributions deducted from their pay from each employer. The Board confirmed that an employee can take NY PFL leave and receive benefits from multiple employers at the same time for the same leave reason. However, the total number of weeks of NY PFL leave and benefits available to an employee in a 52-week period is still subject to the 8-week limit in 2018 (increasing to 12 weeks by 2021).
   
5. NY PFL allows an employee who expects that his/her term of employment will be less than 26 weeks for employees working 20 hours per week or more (or 175 work days for employees working fewer than 20 hours per week) can elect to waive coverage and payroll deductions. In response to a request for clarification, the Board has amended the regulations such that employers MUST provide notice to employees of their right to waive coverage. If the employee’s term of employment exceeds 26 weeks or 175 work days, the employer must start payroll deductions and can collect back premiums from the employee. The regulations do not address HOW the employer is allowed to collect the back premiums.

View The Full Regulations As Posted By New York State

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