By: Laurey West SHRM-CP, Director of Operations

The complexities of the new city ordinance acts impacting both of these cities can be daunting to any employer; however, non-compliance can lead to stiff penalties of up to $500.00 per violation. A great advantage to partnering with Employee Resource Administration, L.P. is that we can help guide you, answer questions and assist you in staying compliant.

The San Antonio Ordinance in Review:
The ordinance became effective on August 1, 2019 for all employers with six or more employees at any time in the preceding months. For employer with five or less employees the ordinance does not become effective until August 1st, 2021.

Effective on August 1, 2019 employers (with six and up to 15 employees) within the City limits of San Antonio must provide one hour of PTO for every thirty hours worked for ALL employees up to 48 hours maximum yearly. Employers with 16 or more employees within the City limits of San Antonio must provide a minimum of 64 hours of paid sick leave per year with the same accrual method.

Sick and safe time accrues in increments of whole hours, not fractions of hours.

The ordinance does not require an employer to pay the employee for paid sick leave at the separation of employment whether voluntarily or involuntarily.

Earned sick leave should be made available to the employee as soon as it is accrued.

An employer must maintain records establishing the amount of earned paid sick time accrued and used by each employee and provide a monthly statement to each employee showing the accrued and used time. This is another reason our clients love that we set up these plans in our system because employees have access to balances via our employee service center at any given time.
Employee handbooks must be changed to reflect the new ordinance guidelines. This is another area we assist our clients with. We update the policy to keep them in compliance.
The ordinance must be posted in an area visible to employees at all times.

The City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District will enforce this ordinance and will charge $500.00 per violation by Municipal Court.

You can visit https://www.sanantonio.gov/Health/Paid-Sick-Leave for more information and some helpful resources.

The Dallas Ordinance in Review:
On August 1, 2019 businesses with six or more employees will have to adhere to the new Dallas Paid Sick Leave Ordinance or face up to $500.00 fine per violation.
An employer must post the City Ordinance 31181 in a staff common area such as a break room next to the workplace poster.

A company with 6 to 15 employees must provide 1 hours of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked for maximum of 48 hours per year. A company with 16 or more employees must provide 1 hour for every 30 hours worked for a maximum of 64 hours per year.

Companies that already have PTO plans that meet the criteria will not need any alteration to their current policies.

You can visit https://dallascityhall.com/departments/fairhousing/paid-sick-leave/Pages/default.aspx for more information and to access new ordinance poster.

On August 7, 2019 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has joined a lawsuit with two other large employers in Dallas wanting to postpone the ordinance until questions about the legalities can be answered.

This should be interesting to see how this plays out, but until then Employee Resource Administration, L.P.  can assist our clients with compliance and tracking Paid Sick Leave for employees.

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