Implementing The Families First Coronavirus Response Act

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing some of the things we are doing at BTI360 to respond to COVID-19. This week, I am sharing the details about how we are implementing H.R. 6201, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.

The new law is good news for businesses like BTI360 because it gives us additional resources to care for our team. But like so many of these things, it’s a confusing maze of requirements and regulations. Thankfully, our People Operations and Finance teams have done the hard work to understand the new law. In that learning process, we never found a clear visual overview of the law and how the components fit together, so they created one for us. I asked for their permission to share it more broadly, in the hopes that it would help others facing the same challenge.

Before I say anything else, a major disclaimer. I am not a lawyer, accountant, or HR expert. Our internal policies are more detailed than what I am sharing here and have been vetted by the appropriate experts. Don’t take this post as legal advice. Instead, I want to give a high-level view of the legislation and how we are implementing it.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act is composed of two parts:

• Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA)
• Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLA)

Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA)

Let’s start with the EPSLA. It provides additional paid leave options for teammates who are:

1. Sick with or quarantined on suspicion of COVID-19.
2. Caring for someone who is believed sick with COVID-19 or caring for children whose school/daycare is closed due to COVID-19.

The benefits vary depending on your specific situation.

In both scenarios, BTI360 is supplementing the EPSLA benefit to provide a greater benefit to the teammate. In any scenario under EPSLA or EFMLA where a teammate’s salary is reduced, they may use PTO or other accrued leave to supplement their salary.

Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLA)

The Emergency Family and Medical Leave Act expands the current Family and Medical Leave act to provide for individuals who cannot work (or telework) because their minor child’s school or childcare is closed due to COVID-19.

How Do EPSLA and EFMLA Relate?

If a teammate or relative gets sick with COVID-19, they might only utilize EPSLA. If they are caring for children whose school or daycare is closed, they might start out on EPSLA for two weeks and then transition to EFMLA for 10 weeks.

We created a flowchart to navigate the various provisions.

Keep in mind that all of these diagrams include the supplement that BTI360 is contributing. Many of our teammates would not receive their full salary under the EPSLA otherwise. How this might look at your company would depend on your salary range and implementation.

In addition to these new laws, we have taken other steps to make more leave available to our team. We are allowing teammates to go up to 40 hours negative on PTO and making two future holidays available to charge against immediately. We are also accepting leave donations as a way to support teammates who are in need of extra hours.

We wish we could do even more, but this new legislation has given us the means to better care for our teams without overextending our business. We hope other companies who are able will also consider supplementing the government benefits to minimize the impact on individuals and families. 

What else are you doing to help your teams thrive during this unusual time?

See my other posts about COVID-19:

• Maximizing Learning During a Crisis
• Responding to COVID-19