Employment Law Obligations Effective January 1, 2015, Including Mandated Sick Leave Notice and Posting Requirements and an Increased IRS Mileage Rate

The Healthy Workplace Families Act of 2014

Although the mandatory sick leave provisions do not take effect until July 1, 2015, employers must comply with notice and posting requirements now.

Effective January 1, 2015 California’s Wage Theft Prevention Notice must include the following information about paid sick leave: (1) employees may accrue and use sick leave; (2) employees have the right to request and use paid sick leave; (3) employees may not be retaliated against or terminated for requesting or using accrued sick leave; and (4) employees have the right to file a complaint against an employer who retaliates against them. The revised Notice containing this additional information may be found here. Employers must now also display in a conspicuous place in each workplace a poster developed by the DLSE notifying employees of their paid sick leave rights. This poster may be found here.

Employers should also begin reviewing and revising, or creating, sick leave and/or paid time off policies to ensure compliance with California’s new paid sick leave law by July 1, 2015.

Supervisor Harassment Training
Employers should ensure that the AB 1825 harassment training provided to their supervisors in 2015 includes a component on the prevention of abusive conduct in the workplace. Abusive conduct is defined as conduct of an employee in the workplace, with malice, that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, and unrelated to an employer’s legitimate business interests.

IRS Mileage Rate Increase
The 2015 reimbursement rate has been increased from 56 cents per mile in 2014 to 57.5 cents per mile. In order to take advantage of the reasonableness presumption under Labor Code section 2802, employers should begin reimbursing mileage incurred on or after January 1, 2015 at the rate of 57.5 cents per mile.

Update Employee Handbooks
Employers should review and revise their employee handbooks to reflect changes in the law that took effect on January 1, 2015 and affect their businesses.

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