Hello and welcome to an overview of the Washington Paid Sick Leave Law. We know you’re busy and we appreciate you taking the time to learn about this new law going into effect for your associate. 1
Starting January 1, 2018, all associates working in the state of Washington will be provided paid and job protected time away from work under the new Paid Sick Leave Law. Associates will be able to use this new paid sick leave for things such as when they or a family member are sick or injured; when schools, businesses, or other places of care are closed for a public health or safety reason; when they or a family member are going through domestic violence, abuse or stalking; and other reasons. 2
Let’s take a look at how the Paid Sick Leave is earned by each of the associate groups. For Hourly associates, their PTO accrual will be separated into two buckets within the GTA Porta l ; PTO and Protected PTO. Newly hired associates will continue to have a 90 day wait before PTO begins to accrue. Protected PTO, however, will begin accruing upon hire. Both PTO and Protected PTO will become available to associates after they have been employed for 90 days. There are no limits on the amount of PTO and Protected PTO associates can accrue and both are paid out upon termination to associates with at least one year of service. For drivers, the PTO will look just like it does today in the system. Like hourly associates , there will be no limits on the amount of PTO drivers can accrue and all available PTO is paid out upon termination to drivers with at least one year of service. All PTO accrued by drivers can be used for paid sick leave reasons as outlined in the policy Finally, for salaried associates, nothing is changing. The current PTO amounts already meet the requirements under the new law and include protected time. Salaried associates will continue to be able to carry over up to 5 days each PTO plan year and are paid out up to 5 days of PTO upon termination if they have at least one year of service. 3
If you have associates located in Seattle, Spokane or Tacoma, then these associates will transition from their current paid sick leave program to this new program effective January 1, 2018. Associates’ PTO buckets will transfer and be split into the Protected PTO bucket and the regular PTO bucket. Up to 108 hours will be transferred into associates’ Protected PTO buckets and any additional time will be placed into their regular PTO bucket. So, if an associate has a total PTO balance of 70 hours, on January 1 the full 70 hours will transfer into the Protected PTO bucket. If an associate has more than 108 hours of PTO available, say 128 hours, then 108 hours will transfer into the Protected PTO bucket and the remaining 20 hours into the regular PTO bucket. Again, no PTO time is lost. Please note, for associates working in these three areas, the protected sick indicator will no longer be visible as of January 1, 2018, and associates working in Seattle will no longer receive a front load of PTO at the beginning of the plan year. 4
Let’s take a look at an example to help you better understand how it works. Jack is a 7 year associate working 80 hours a this pay period. Based on his tenure, he accrues one PTO hour for every 10 service hours, earning a total of 8 hours of PTO each this pay period. On January 1, 2108, Jack’s 8 hours of PTO earned each pay period will be split into PTO and Protected PTO. The majority of the time, 5.3 hours, earned will go into the PTO bucket and the other 2.7 hours will go into the Protected PTO bucket. Remember, there will not be any limits on the amount of PTO Jack can accrue. The accrual rates by tenure have been updated in the Paid Time Off – Hourly Associates policy on the WIRE to reflect what portion of accruals will be accrued as PTO and what portion accrues as Protected PTO . 5
Now that you understand how PTO and Protected PTO are accrued by hourly associates, what can the Protected PTO be used for? Protected PTO can actually be used for any reason, just like regular PTO, but the reason code determines which PTO bucket gets used first. So, if associates request time off for reasons of Sick or Family Care, the Protected PTO will automatically be used first. If there is not enough Protected PTO available, then it will then dip into the PTO bucket. On the other hand, if associates request time off as Vacation or Personal, PTO will automatically be used first and then Protected PTO if there is not enough regular PTO available. Any available time in the personal bucket can will still be used if there is not enough PTO or Protected PTO At the end of each PTO plan year, associates’ regular PTO will continue to follow the carry over and cash out process it does today. The full Protected PTO balance, however, will be carried over, regardless fo the number of hours available. If an associate leaves the company, any unused and accrued PTO and Protected PTO will be paid out as long as the associate has been employed for a year, or in accordance to any specific local laws. 6
Let’s dive a little deeper into how the end of the year carry over and cash out process will work. The protected PTO balance is not eligible for cash out so a s we said earlier, the entire Protected PTO balance will carry over year after year, but how does this work for the PTO bucket carry over and cash out? If an associate’s Protected PTO balance is equal to or greater than 80 hours for full-time or 48 hours for part-time, then the full Protected PTO balance carries over and any time in the regular PTO bucket is automatically paid out to the associate in cash. So, if at the end of the year a full- time associate has 85 hours of Protected PTO and 10 hours of regular PTO, then the 85 hours of Protected PTO will carry over into the next year and the associate will be paid cash for the regular PTO 10 hours. If an associate’s available Protected PTO is less the 80 hour and 48 hour limits, then the full Protected PTO balance is carried over and additional hours from their regular PTO bucket to get them to the carry over maximum. Then any remaining hours in the regular PTO bucket are cashed out. So, let’s say a full-time associate has 70 hours Protected PTO and 40 hours regular PTO at the end of the year. The full Protected PTO balance of 70 hours is carried over. An additional 10 hours from the regular PTO bucket is carried over for a total of 80 hours carried over and then the remaining 30 hours of regular PTO are paid in cash to the associate. In all cases, associates do not lose any PTO they have earned. 7
Let’s take a look at a couple more examples. When the Protected PTO balance is less than 80 hours, a portion of the PTO balance will carry over to bring the total carried over up to 80. The remainder will be cashed out. When the Protected PTO balance is 80 hours or more, all of the PTO bucket will cash out. 8
Since this Paid Sick Leave law is specific to Washington, let’s talk about when associates working in Washington, transfer to another state. If an associate transfers to a state that does not have a Paid Sick Leave law, such as Arkansas, then the Protected PTO and regular PTO balances are combined into one PTO balance. The associate is then subject to the PTO limits and guidelines of that state. If an associate transfers to another state with a Paid Sick Leave law, the Protected PTO and regular PTO balances transfer over as separate buckets and the associate’s balances are then subject to the limits and guidelines of that state’s Paid Sick Leave law. 9
Associates will be able to use Protected PTO to have an absence approved when they: Submit a time off request for their missed shift or tardiness (late in/early out) Enter a time off reason of PTO- Sick or PTO- Family Care Use enough Protected PTO to avoid an unauthorized absence under your segment’s attendance policy as shown below and Submit the time off request within 14 days (7 days for logistics) of the absence. No documentation is required when Protected PTO is requested. Associates with a No Call, No Show absence should still receive occurrences for the no call, no show portion, but they should not receive an occurrence for the absence itself. When approving the absence,the absence approval reason code should be “Exception Covered by Time Off Policy” or “Manager Approved” 10
So what about Washington Kin Care and FMLA? Well, Washington Kin Care, FMLA, and Paid Sick Leave are all separate, but will work together. Whenever associates request time off for Family Care, this time away is always protected under Washington Kin Care. Protected PTO tracks how much protected time can be used under Washington's paid sick leave law but like we just saw, time off for Family Care will also deduct from the protected PTO bucket even though the time is also protected under Washington’s Kin Care law. Associate simply need to request the time off through the system with a reason code of Family Care. 11
Hourly associates will see their protected PTO accrue as “Protected Sick” in their Global Time and Attendance Portal from January 1 to February 3 2018 news for your drivers, they will not see any change to their GTA Portal View due to this new law and policy. 12
Beginning February 3, 2018 Hourly associates will see their protected PTO displayed as Protected Paid Time Off in the GTA system They will also see the combined total of their Protected PTO and PTO time Lastly, All associates will see how much PTO and/or Protected PTO they have accrued YTD! Since Drivers do not have a protected PTO balance they will not see any details pertaining to that balance. 13
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