Coronavirus Paid Sick Leave and EFMLA Updates - March 26, 2020

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you to those of us— thank you to those of you joining us live and those of you watching the recording. Today is March 26th, 2020, which is obviously important to note because the situation that we will be discussing is fluid and dynamic and changing daily. So I want to make sure we're keeping you all up to date with everything for up-to-date updates and changes, you can visit our website, ergpayroll.com. And if you're not subscribing already, make sure that you join our list there so you can get all these things directly to your inbox and cut through the fluff. Today we are going to talk about one of the most difficult topics we have seen in quite some time in the human resources and employer world, and that's the impact of the coronavirus, COVID-19, on employers. My name is Matt Vadie, and I am the CEO of ERG Payroll and HR, headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina. Today we're going to cover a little bit more about the newly signed law, along with the frequently asked questions we are getting from our clients. But first, I do have a question for you, and I'm just curious how everybody is dealing with working from home. How are you adapting to the work from home for those of you that are? Are your pets and family getting a little bit tired of you being around the house all the time? Are you wearing pants to work every every day, or are you just relying on the fact that Zoom is only catching your upper body? Strange times indeed. I'm sure we'll be back out of this in no time, and hang in there. But I'm looking forward to hearing all of your fun stories, and I see the chat already lighting up, so I can only imagine. Last time I checked the chat after the video was over and saw some interesting comments about a bidet. So please just keep it clean but fun in the chat, right? So anyhow, I know it's a tense time for a lot of you, and I want you to know that we are We're here for you, and we should all be here for each other. We all have a vested interest in the success of each other's businesses, our communities, our economy. Positivity and positive leadership is really the only way we're going to emerge stronger than before in this scenario. We did record another webinar last week, so if you have not seen the first webinar, I highly suggest you watch that. You can find that on our YouTube channel. If you simply go to YouTube and type in ERG payroll, you'll find all of our videos and be able to watch that first one. I say to watch it only because I'm not going to go into quite the level of detail on some of the items related to the FFCRA that we're going to discuss momentarily. And I'm certainly not going to get so deep into my bio because I know a lot of you on the line either know me or attended the first webinar. So please go and check that out. But a little bit about me, I just love helping companies create high-performing workplaces. I've been in the HR industry for over 16 years. Years. I really love that intersection of technology and expertise that fuels companies to do great things. My passion is helping companies to engage, retain, and grow— ERG— their number one asset, their people. While this is a challenging time for us as leaders and a time where we need to exercise empathy, precision, and tact, I'm hopeful that I can help you to do some of those things today and going forward. We will not be having an open Q&A on this conversation today. So please take down my email address. It's matt@ergpayroll.com. Listen to the webinar. If any of your questions are still not answered at the end, please just email them to me and I will do my best to answer. We are really taking the mindset here that we have a great opportunity to help everyone, not just our customers and our community members, but anyone around the country who just needs some guidance and advice in this challenging time. We certainly want to help in any way we can, and I've been incredibly grateful that we have been able to do that. We've talked to many business owners all around the country and helped them to make some very challenging decisions, even though they don't necessarily work with our company today. So I want you to know that I'm praying for all of you during this challenging time and also going to do my best to do hard work for your team if I'm given the opportunity. So today what we are going to cover is a recap of the recent updates to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. We're going to share some share some of the resources available to you as an employer, both some on our site as well as sharing some of the things directly through links to other sites. Those of you that were on last week's webinar will be able to understand what has changed. So a good bit has changed in a week. There are some updates. We are going to review some of the things we already covered just to— I think you need to hear this more than once. Things will jump out at you the second time that did not the first time. It'd be a great opportunity to continue to galvanize your understanding of what the FFCRA is. And then we're going to talk through a new set of FAQs versus the FAQs we did last time. Our frequently asked questions are evolving by the day based on the type of employer and the situations that are occurring. So lots to cover today. And we'll be sending this information, the recording, the slides, along with several templates as a follow-up to this webinar. If you're watching the recording, just drop me an email to that email address, matt@ergpayroll.com. And we will send you over each of those resources. Let's go ahead and dive in. First and foremost, we have turned our website into command control for all things coronavirus for employers. So we are a human resources organization. Things that relate directly to some of the other components of the stimulus package, which has not been passed, which is probably a great opportunity for me to share briefly. I know somewhere in here I've got it in my notes, but our philosophy on all of this is the following. We are going to prepare and share information for things that are active and you need to prepare for. So if something is, for example, the stimulus package that has not been completely passed yet, it has been passed by the, uh, Senate, is waiting for House and then presidential approval. A lot is going to change between now and when that is approved. So we're not going to fill up your inboxes with things that could happen. We are going to share the things that did happen overnight typically or the prior afternoon each morning and on this website. So you'll see we've got frequently asked questions. We've got recordings of the webinars. We've giving away all of our templates that we're sharing with our clients, things like layoff selection forms, layoff letters to use with your employees if you are in that unfortunate circumstances, and much, much more. So please go check out our website. This is right on the homepage when you hit the website. We are monitoring the Department of Labor, each state, the IRS, applicable legal updates, and other agencies every single day and just trying to cull that information down and give it to you in a consumable format. I will also allude to several times during this conversation a Dropbox that we will be sharing with each of you after this call. So, and those of you that were on the first call already have access to this Dropbox, and you will notice it has changed a good bit since you first logged in. So we've created this simple set of online files that we can share so that you can share it with anybody. Anybody can have access to it. It's not some download where you've got to give your Social Security number to get access to the information. We want to provide as much information to as many people as possible, once again, to help in a challenging circumstance. We understand that, you know, it's more important that we help people than necessarily worry about what we are getting out of this. So we're adding to it daily. So check in on it as things change, and you would notice once again, if you logged in today, it will look completely different than it did the first day. So we are also going to do this webinar once a week. So every Thursday afternoon, we will be doing some sort of a follow-up webinar to cover the things that have occurred since the prior week until things start to slow down. As you see, when we go through some of the changes today, there are things that are still yet to be sorted out related to each of these items. So we are waiting for guidance on many different components, particularly how some of these things will be administered. So each week we'll do some recaps on this. And I definitely want to share some of the other folks we're checking in with on their great content. Fisher Phillips Law Firm, hey, good tie, an attorney over there, a good friend of ours here in Columbia, South Carolina. Check them out, check out the website. They're doing a fantastic job staying out in front of this. Nelson Mullins, Mason Hoag, same thing with their website and their subscriber list. Definitely check them out. And upcoming, a good business partner of ours, Pendleton Street Business Advisors, will be launching their interview series talking about what to do from here. Their value proposition is how to help you create value in your business. And so they're going to be having interviews with folks who are going to be helping them to share ways to seek opportunities in a challenging time. So once again, check out some of those other folks and the resources that they provide. Let's dive into a brief recap of H.R. 6201, also known as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. So this was signed into law by the president on March 18, 2020. The act will go into effect April 1st. Now you'll hear me mention that several times over the course of this call because we initially were told that it would go into effect April 2nd, or within 15 days. And so we want to make sure that we understand that that date has changed. It is one of these many changes that have occurred because it was a very short, quickly written bill. And most of the questions about how to execute or implement the requirements are either being clarified daily or will continue to be clarified over time. We're going to focus primarily on the provisions of this act that affect employers. There are things written into this act that affect Others, so you think about things like programs like WIC and SNAP were included in here. We're not going to touch on any of that. We're only going to touch on the employer side of things. And primarily, we're going to be touching on the two key provisions providing paid leave to employees forced to miss work because of the COVID-19 outbreak. First, there was an emergency expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act, known as FMLA, and also a new federal paid sick leave law. We're going to talk a little bit about the payroll tax credit and how people are going to recoup that money. But in summary, most circum— for certain circumstances related to COVID-19, employees are going to be eligible for up to 2 weeks of sick leave, full pay if they're sick, 2/3 pay if they're taking care of a family member for illness, quarantine, or school closures, and up to 12 weeks of FMLA leave for school closures, 10 days of which will be unpaid, and then up to 10 weeks at two-thirds pay. I'm going to get into slightly more detail on that in just a moment. Employers are being immediately reimbursed via payroll tax credits. This is getting slightly clearer by the day. We're starting to get some guidance on those payroll tax credits and continue to provide updates. We'll provide some today and some further. But there are some key elements beyond this for employers that we're going to dive into right now. Let's do a quick recap of what the emergency FMLA is. So one of the interesting things that I'm starting to realize as we look at this FMLA and how it's going to be administered is just how similar from an administrative process it's going to look and feel, at least according to the Department of Labor, as current FMLA. So this expanded coverage and eligibility is going to impact employers with fewer than 500 employees employees that have worked there for at least 30 days prior to the designated leave, they may be eligible to receive paid family and medical leave. As a result, this means thousands of employers who are not previously subject to FMLA— it is typically for organizations with 50 or more employees within 75 miles of each other— are going to now be subject to FMLA requirements. And so reasons for people to be eligible for this emergency leave are any individual who's employed by the employer for at least 30 days before the first day of leave. That's a key component of the eligibility. May take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave. So that's the important part, right? When they go on FMLA, this is job-protected leave that allows an employee who is unable to work or telework— another key component, gonna want to stay on this, this language, right? And once again, we've got this language available to you on the website. Because every sentence inside these regulations matters when it comes to the administration of it. So 12 weeks of job-protected leave to allow an employee who is unable to work or telework to care for the employee's child under 18 years of age if the child's school or place of care is closed or the child— childcare provider is unavailable due to a public health emergency. So these are your teammates who their kid is out of school here in South Carolina, that is now through the end of April, they don't have childcare, they need to to go home to spend time, they're going to have paid leave and job-protected leave. So this is now the only qualifying need for emergency FMLA and a significant change from the initial version, which is once again why we don't pay as much attention to the initial version. So, so the paid leave is another big change in that the House reduced the unpaid period of emergency FMLA. So it's now the first 10 days rather than the initial 14 days that were proposed of emergency FMLA will be unpaid. During that 10-day period, an employee can elect to substitute any accrued paid leave, like vacation or sick leave, to come cover some or all of the 10-day unpaid period. So this is an important piece when we start to go to the next one. An employee may elect to substitute any accrued paid leave, like vacation or sick leave. This is going to come back to us in our FAQs later on when we talk about the paid sick leave, which is different than the emergency FMLA. So After the 10-day period, employer generally must pay full-time employees at two-thirds of the employee's regular rate. So they can be out up to 12 weeks. After 10 days, they go to two-thirds of the regular rate for the number of hours they would normally be scheduled to work. Now there is a cap on that. It limits the pay to $200 per day and $10,000 in aggregate per employee. So limitations, $10,000 in aggregate and $200 per day. 2/3 of my wages over that 12 weeks. So now, how do I calculate pay for non-full-time employees? Anybody who works a part-time or irregular schedule are entitled to be paid based on the average number of hours they worked for the 6 months prior. If they have not worked there for 6 months, they're entitled to the employee's reasonable expectation at hiring for average number of hours they would normally be scheduled to work. Once again, I'll hit on this again. We talked about it in the last webinar. This is where setting expectations during the hiring process matters. It always matters. But let's make sure this— use this as just another lesson when we're talking to people about what the expectations are of their job, which include how often they're going to work, how frequently, what they'll be doing. We're setting proper expectations during the hiring process. So the other side of this is not only am I going to get paid leave, I'm going to have job restoration. So employers with 25 or more employees will have the same obligation as under traditional FMLA to return any employee who has taken emergency FMLA to the same or equivalent position upon the return to work. So when this person comes back after 12 weeks, you are expected to restore their job. However, employers with fewer than 25 employees are generally excluded from this requirement only if the position no longer exists. Following the emergency FMLA due to an economic downturn or other circumstances caused by a public health emergency during the period. So, once again, that is not the position is filled by somebody else because you had to fill the role. That is the position no longer exists. So very important differentiation there. This exclusion is also subject to the employer making reasonable attempts to return the employee to an equivalent position and requires an employer to make efforts to return the employee to work for up to a year following the employee's leave. So even if you, once again, terminate the role temporarily, if you open that job for hiring 6 months down the road, the expectation is this person is going to be the first one you go back to, to try to fill the job with. So this is going into effect, as we mentioned, April 1st. That's changed slightly. We've got the exclusions of people with 25 or less as it relates to that FMLA component, if the position no longer exists. And then Companies with 50 or fewer employees, you're not exempt from this. You are only exempt from this if the required leave would jeopardize the viability of your business. That is a big part, and we're going to talk about some of the other changes that have occurred over the last few days in two slides. So I'm going to move forward now to emergency paid sick leave. So the second component, we've got emergency FMLA and emergency paid sick leave. So there are 6 different reasons I could be eligible for paid sick leave. Now, paid sick leave is 80 hours of paid sick time. This portion of the new act also changed a good bit, but allows a person to take eligible sick leave for any of these reasons. They're either subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19. They've been advised by a healthcare provider to self-quarantine due to COVID-19 concerns. They are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking medical diagnosis. So now these 3 are different from the next 3. And if you'll pay close attention, you'll notice these are different because they are— you are sick, you have been advised, you are experiencing symptoms. And then the next 3 are related to caretaking. And so they have different responsibilities as far as what percentage of the sick time will be paid out for each. So if I'm caring for an individual subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order— oops, typo— then that changes things a little bit, but I'm still eligible for paid sick leave. If I'm caring for my child because their school or place of care is closed, if I'm experiencing any other substantially similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, sort of the all other duties as assigned clause, as I like to call it down there at the bottom. So who is subject to these regulations? Same thing, fewer than 500 employees. And we, we got some clarity on the 500-employee mark. It is the 500 employees at the time that the leave is being requested. So if you were 550 employees yesterday and you just laid off 60 people, and then somebody comes in on April 1st and wants to be subject to this, then you are under the 500. If you are 600 and then you get on to 550 after the layoff or you go up to 650, you are not subject to this. So this provision requires that employers of fewer than 500 provide full-time employees, regardless of how long they've been with the company prior to the leave, 80 hours of paid sick time at their regular rate. Now once again, paid sick time at the regular rate is for those top 3.. And so I get two-thirds of my wages for 80 hours if I'm in the bottom three, if I'm a caretaker, if I'm taking care of somebody else. We also have some caps on this. We have $511 per day if I'm being paid full wages or $200 per day if I'm leaving to care for somebody else. And we have total caps of $5,110, $5,110, and $2,000 total dollars. Those as well. So one of the key components we're learning a little bit more about over time is the interaction with other paid leave, which I'm going to talk more about here in just a few moments. And calculating rate of pay, you know, we talked— it follows the same methodology as far as the part-time employees. You know, one thing that has come out is if an employee regularly works overtime, so somebody has consistently worked 45 hours per week over the last 6 months, then that will be their included as their regular rate of pay when looking at paying them out. So lots to discover there and continue to learn about. Now, one thing to note is that there are states that are providing guidance and regulations that are richer than this. So important to note that New York is one that just has a completely different set of expectations that are, are now law. And you are still responsible for abiding by those on a state level. I say that because I know we've got some of our New York clients on the phone who are going to be subject to a different set of rules. So if you are in New York or any of the other— Michigan, I know, is one that's affected by a state level— then just drop me a note and I'll send you the full breakdown related to your state. All right. So let's talk about the tax credits for paid sick and paid FMLA. So one of the things that we continuously get promised about these tax credits— or excuse me, about how we're going to be reimbursed for those wages. So that's the other side of this. So let me clarify that. So if I— if you go out for 2 weeks on paid sick leave, I am going to get reimbursed for those 2 weeks of wages in the form of a tax credit. So I pay for your emergency FMLA for 10 weeks. I'm going to get paid— reimbursed immediately in the form of a tax credit against the employer portion of Social Security and federal withholding. So this is something interesting that we found. Most of the initial guidance told us the tax credit was only going to apply against employer Social Security. I'm going to show you a statement from the IRS website on the next page that gives us some conflicting guidance but lets us know that federal withholding is also going to be able to be dipped into for that tax credit. So, which is a big change because if you think about your employer Social Security, which is 6.2%, Medicare 1.45% of your payroll, in most circumstances that wouldn't cover more than a couple of employees. And so, you know, one to two, depending on how big your payroll is. And so when we start to look at having federal withholding taxes available to get our credits reimbursed immediately, then this becomes a much more viable option and probably removes that under-50 exclusion around, you know, it's gonna make my business lack viability in the long term. It's gonna make it harder for us to say that when we know that we're gonna be getting reimbursed that money almost immediately after the payroll. So there, there also are promises of a reimbursement form, which we were supposed to have this week, still did not have as of the time of this recording, if your money were to exceed that. So if so many of your staff members were going out on leave that you exceeded your, your tax liability for the payroll and could not get the tax credit, then there is a quick reimbursement form that you could take advantage of as well. Oh, I don't know what happened here. So I bolded that and it turned it into some sort of weird bubble letters on my screen here, but tax credits for paid sick and paid EFMLA. This is directly off the IRS website that, of course, the part that I bolded is the most important part. So the payroll taxes that are available for retention include withholding of federal income taxes, the employee share of Social Security, and Medicare taxes and the employer share of Social Security and Medicare taxes with respect to all employees. So it sounds like they're making this accessible to taxes across the board to get reimbursed for this credit. More to come on that, obviously, and you want to get with your payroll provider if you have some of these claims coming your way as soon as the postings are made. So that's something that we're going to get into right now is what it looks like as we start to get closer to April 1st, we're starting to get some more guidance and some more changes on how this is going to look. Obviously, we got that guidance related to reimbursement. You know, in this example, as we look at it, if an eligible employer paid $5,000 in sick leave and was otherwise required to deposit $8,000 in payroll taxes, including taxes withheld from all its employees, the employer could use up to $5,000 of the $8,000 in taxes it was going to deposit for making qualified leave payments. The employer would only be required under the law to deposit the remaining $3,000 on its next regular deposit date. So once again, keep in mind that language is telling us it's including taxes withheld from its employees and the employer portion. So pretty big change there from our initial understanding of these regulations. We also look at how the coverage has changed and— or at least how it's gotten clearer over time. Employers are not only covered there, but they're receiving 100% reimbursement for the paid leave, but also for health insurance costs are included in the credit. You're going to face no payroll tax liability as an employer, and self-employed individuals are also eligible to receive an individual— an equivalent credit. So I'm guessing there's not a lot of self-employed individuals on the call, But if you know somebody who is, then that is certainly something for you to discuss with them. And I know we definitely have a lot of CPAs on the line, and I'm sure you have a lot of self-employed clients that could take advantage of that should they be stuck home taking care of their family and can't be out earning money. We see some small business protection. So those employers with fewer than 50 employees are eligible for the exemption. If they are going to have the viability of the business threatened. Now, to expand on that, employers choosing to seek that exemption may need to document why their business meets the criteria for an exemption. So these criteria are still really to be set forth by the Department of Labor, and at this point, you shouldn't send any materials to the Department of Labor when seeking a small business exemption for paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave. Also saying IRS has it all over their website, quit calling them about the $1,200 that you're expecting to get in the mail because it's not finalized yet. They've got big glowing boxes on the top of their website now. Apparently they're getting a lot of calls for people asking for that $1,200. So stop calling them. All right, so the compliance is, they're gonna ease up a little bit on the compliance piece in the 30-day non-enforcement. For purposes of the non-enforcement position, employers who violate the act but behaved reasonably in good faith would be defined as somebody who remedies any violations as soon as possible. So if you were not aware of this and you were— as soon as you found out about the paid sick leave and started paying your employees and tried to remedy things as quickly as possible, they would view that as a good faith effort.. And as a part of that, you need to be making your employees whole as soon as practicable. The violations of the Act were not willful. So really, this is the biggest definition here of what we're looking for is people who are sort of willfully violating these things and trying not to pay their people and, you know, not posting it and trying not to let their people be aware of it. You know, certainly something to look out for. And that if the department receives a written commitment from the employer to comply with the Act in the future, then then they're going to view that as an act in good faith. Now, that's for 30 days, non-enforcement period. So if the employer acts— violates the act willfully, fails to provide a written commitment to future compliance with the act, or fails to remedy the violation upon notification by the department, the department is going to exercise its enforcement authority. So you're going to make a bad situation worse if you are willfully violating any of these. But interestingly enough, it says it's a 30-day enforcement, but they're also saying on April 17th, this limited stay of enforcement will no longer apply, and the department will fully enforce violations of the act as appropriate and consistent with the law. I guess they're interpreting that 30 days as being from March 18th, when the president passed it, until April 17th. So, so make sure you are doing your best to comply in the short term, and you are set up to comply fully in the long term, which would be just a couple weeks out. Another question we're getting is the interaction with other employer-provided paid sick leave and other paid leave. I'm going to get more into these two leaves specifically when we get into the FAQs, but this act does not preempt existing state and local paid sick leave requirements. So once again, there are states that have their own individual and unique paid sick leave requirements.. This does not preempt those requirements. You cannot require employees to use other leave first. So once again, I touched on it earlier, they have the option to use other leaves first, but you cannot require them to. And sick leave provided for under the Act does not carry over from year to year. So the requirements expire for this on December 31st, 2020, which is good to know. At least by December, it's expected that we'll be able to get out of our houses again. So that's, that's great news. From the IRS there. Now, one key piece of this is that the posters were released yesterday. You should all have them. If you don't, they're in the Dropbox I'll be sharing afterwards. We're going to hit on them more in the FAQs. They're going to be treated an awful lot like the rest of the posters you are required to put out for your employees. Now, once again, are going to make folks aware to the situation and educate them of their rights as an employee during this challenging time. All right. Let's talk a little bit— I'm going to paint with sort of a broad brush here because we've got a lot of different states on the line. I know that the bulk of you are probably in South Carolina. That's where we're headquartered. That's typically where most of our attendees come from. But I also know I've seen folks from California, New York, all over the place on the line. And there will be people from all over the country watching this after the fact as well. Many states have already offered to defer state withholding tax until June or July, and we're starting to see more get into the mirror of the federal tax in going towards July 15th and pushing that date back. But here in South Carolina, state withholding returns and payments due April 1st to June 1st are now going to be due June 1st, 2020. So any penalty and interest will not be applied if the payment is made by June 1st. They are automatically applying this tax relief for all applicable returns and payments. You don't need to take any action there. But interestingly enough, I look at California as a different example. There, the EDD is reading that employers may request up to a 60-day extension of time from the EDD to file their state payroll reports and/or deposit payroll taxes without penalty or interest. But a written request for the extension must be received within 60 days from the original delinquent date of the payment or return, which that in itself creates a whole new unique set of challenges as it comes to administering your— turning off payments inside of your payroll system. It does create some ripple effects and some challenges for both you and your payroll provider to manage these things. And so there will be some manual intervention needed, and particularly when we go back to that payroll tax credit piece. So, I think I've had this conversation with folks a lot, and that's that, you know, one of the things that's pretty well protected in payroll systems are employer taxes. They are not made to be edited how much you pay as an employer on a payroll. We can't say, "Oh, you owe $5,000 in Social Security as an employer, but you'd just like to pay $4,000 this time." It's either typically on or off whether or not you're paying your taxes on time, which 99.9% of the time, obviously it is on. And so this is going to create some, some really interesting scenarios as we all kind of scurry around and make sure that our softwares are up to date and ready to handle some of these new components of getting you the credits back against your payrolls. And I can assure you at ERG, we are working very diligently to get that in place prior to April 1st. So One other thing that's worth mentioning on these deferrals is, man, this is a deferment of the payment. It is not an abatement of the payment. So if you have the money, you should probably consider paying the money because you're maybe creating a snowball for yourself in the future that's going to only compound your issues. We're seeing— starting to see some folks who are trying to be opportunistic and Oh, hey, I can defer payments here even though I'm still operating at full capacity. You know, you might just be creating more of a challenge for yourself down the road by doing so. Something to consider. All right. So unemployment taxes are something that we are getting a lot of questions about. Well, not taxes, but just unemployment in general. You know, I think the first thing is just thinking through when does unemployment make sense for the employee. And that's, you know, people are trying to understand when to use paid sick, EFMLA, unemployment, et cetera. But let's look at a couple of scenarios real quick. So, for individuals who are sick and cannot work, they're out of work due to a school, daycare closing, or they're caring for a family member with COVID-related illness, but your employer is open, your office is open, sick leave or paid time off according to the company policy would be the appropriate resource for the time away from work in addition to the paid sick leave and EFMLA. Now, if a person is out of work due to a business closing, a layoff, offer reduction in hours related to COVID-19, they should file for unemployment insurance benefits. Seems pretty straightforward, right? But we're gonna touch more on that in the FAQs because there's, there's a lot to consider when we think about that. When we think about the unemployment taxes side of it, we're seeing similar deferments of the taxes. So once again, in South Carolina, the deadline to pay first quarter contributions has been extended from April 30th to June 1st. "It is important to note that South Carolina still expects you to submit your wage reports by April 30th, 2020, so that the state will continue to have current data to evaluate workforce needs in South Carolina," he says with a smile. Employees in South Carolina are taking advantage of something that we are definitely seeing around the country, that is fast— or excuse me, slowed waiting periods in the respect that they're, they're getting faster. So we've removed a week from our waiting period here. I know I just said slow, fast. I guess I wasn't sure if that was slower or faster. But anyways, a week has been removed from the waiting period to try to get the benefits into people's hands faster. The eligibility criteria has not been definitively changed anywhere, but the guidance continues to be if a person is out of work due to a business closing, a layoff, or reduction in hours related to COVID-19, those individuals should file for unemployment insurance benefits. It's the only way to determine if they're eligible. There is not— even though there are some guidelines in peacetime circumstances, if you will, on the websites in most states, they typically are not going to apply in this circumstance. And I think we're going to continue to see more things loosened up as far as eligibility requirements go. But it's important to note that here in South Carolina, the entire process can be handled online, and I'm sure that's the case for most states. If you're an employer in South Carolina, and you are laying off your staff, you can actually apply for them. If you don't have your PIN when you go to log in, you will need the gross wages from Q4 filing along with the taxes paid in Q4 and your ID number, which should all be on your UCE 120. If you're a client of ERG, just let us know, we'll provide that. If you're not, grab it off your payroll reports. But I will say they still have had some glitches with their system where even with accurate information, it has not allowed people in with that. So you you may get into the back and forth calling with them. They have got the process down to calling in and putting in your number and waiting in queue for a callback instead of having to sit on hold, which is nice, but still definitely a little bit of back and forth there. So I understand the urgency, but also understand that they are just overwhelmed with inquiries right now. All right, so that's a little bit on state tax updates. Once again, if you're in another state, South Carolina, Georgia, excuse me, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, we're seeing different things in each area. California, New York, a couple of our largest states that we serve. Definitely reach out, let me know if you have any questions specific to your state updates. One other update that we've seen is the E-Verify and I-9s for new hires. So, you know, there's about a partial government shutdown, so E-Verify is actually not currently available, and employers are unable to enroll in E-Verify, create any new cases, view or take action on a case, delete anybody, all that stuff. So, even run reports or resolve any tentative non-confirmations. But to minimize the burden on folks, the Department of Homeland Security has implemented a couple of policies to help us out. The 3-day rule for creating E-Verify cases is suspended for cases affected by the unavailability of E-Verify. The time period during which employees may resolve TNCs is going to be extended— so temporary non-confirmeds, the number of days you verify is not available will not count toward the days the employee has to begin the process of resolving their TNCs. And as of this morning, I believe they're still closed through April 7th at the earliest, which we'll see how— if that continues to get pushed out. But they're going to continue to provide additional guidance regarding the 3-day rule and time period to resolve any TNCs once operations resume. Employers may not take adverse action against any employee because the E-Verify case is in interim case status, including while the employee's case is in an extended interim case due to the unavailability of E-Verify. So no ability to take adverse action until you get some sort of definitive ruling from E-Verify. Once shutdown is over, we expect to hear more instructions. We'll update our, our website at that time to share with you guys and probably provide an email update so that you know when things are back to normal and what additional guidance we have related to E-Verify and I-9. We covered remote working best practices a good bit on the first one, and this is a saturated topic that I, I don't necessarily know if we need to provide more voice to, but I have seen a couple of things from our clients that have moved to remote work environments. And honestly, just you're moving, uh, taking our own office to a remote work environment where getting set up is one thing, getting people out there, getting the tools, getting the technology, getting people, you know, just comfortable with the idea. That's great. But now we're, you know, a week in, you're going to be 2 weeks in, you might be 2 months in here before long. And I think there are some other things to consider that are worth mentioning. You know, communication to me is one of the biggest challenges that I'm seeing with folks, and that is the, sort of lack thereof. You know, communication normally is of a high velocity when we're right next to each other. We want to make sure that we keep that frequency, velocity, and also the methods of communication on par. You know, I talked to one of my good friends yesterday, and he was talking about how much more he's been using Trello since moving to a remote work environment. Trello is a great tool for communication. Trello. It's a project management tool that works really well for working on projects together, to-do lists, and being able to comment and share information there. A couple of other great tools that we either use or we have clients using: Zoom, obviously we love. Zoho Connect. Zoho Connect is a great tool for not only sharing information but also manuals and other data with your team. Slack. Obviously a lot of folks have heard of Slack out there. They're Some of these folks, their stocks are skyrocketing as a result of this. Not my saying it, but just the fact that they're, they're great tools for times like this. Microsoft Teams we're seeing a lot of, and Google Suite. So what are we seeing that's unique as it relates to more of the human resources component of this? Well, we've got to keep our team building going. We've got to keep that sense of connection. So we're seeing and doing things like Zoom happy hours where everybody has their camera on, can see each other. Same thing with our team meetings, making sure those cameras are on, making sure that we can see each other, get face-to-face, and even just having more of our calls over Zoom so that we can see one another. I know if you're like me, you're a little bit exhausted of calling into the Zoom number. It's definitely boosted up to one of my favorites on my phone here over the last couple weeks where I'm just constantly in Zoom. Lunch and learns, same sort of premise where everybody's kind of connecting to each other, giving everybody a stipend if they have a takeout place near them that's still operating. If not, then just, you know, cook some lunch at home and let's all jump on the call together and do a little bit of training. And, you know, those trainings are a great way to just stay connected and continue to improve. Now, we touched last time on how important it is to continue to train people on best practices for working remote and not just thinking that once you set them up up with a desk and an additional monitor and a keyboard and a mouse and a printer at their house, that they're all of a sudden just going to work the same way there that they do at the office. Continuous communication and training, and then finally setting expectations of how we're going to communicate, how we're going to do these things, how things have changed when we've moved to a remote work environment are critical for our team. So one of the things that we also have in that Dropbox, as mentioned, is a remote work folder. There are a couple of things in there right now. We'll continue to add to it. There is a remote work agreement for employees along with a property receipt acknowledgement. So if you're doing this well, you're setting people up once again with a work environment at home that mirrors their work environment at the office as far as their technological needs. So just a couple of things to keep in mind as you move towards a more remote workforce and hopefully make this part of your repertoire going forward. All right, so let's get into some of the FAQs. I realize as we're going to go through these, they're, they're in sort of a scattershot order, but I'm going to hit on several different topics here over the next few minutes before we wrap up. So the first question that we're getting a lot is, can we lay off some people but not others? Yes, you can. There are several ways to approach this, and we have included a layoff selection memo in the Dropbox It is important that you as the employer complete this document and keep it on hand internally. It serves as documentation regarding how the business handled layoff selection. We want to make sure we document the process and are even-handed in layoff selection to protect the business from any discrimination claims. We're going to see particularly why that's important in one of the upcoming questions. Employers— one of the prohibitions we have is employers may not discharge discipline, or otherwise discriminate against any employee who takes paid sick leave under the FFCRA and files a complaint or institutes a proceeding under or related to the FFCRA. So employee goes out on paid sick leave and then you immediately decide to lay them off because that's more convenient for you. You have to have a documented business reason why. That is who you chose to lay off. So just something to keep in mind. And I'm having this conversation frequently with folks in that we have to be, we have to be cognizant of the long-term effects of how we treat our employees right now and our teams. And there's a host of reasons which are more obvious, which are about the engagement, retention, and development of our teammates and the health of our business and all those things. But we also have to keep an eye on future potential implications when letting folks go with without having proper documentation and procedure in place and then potentially having, you know, discrimination, unlawful termination suits on our hands down the road as things continue to evolve and change. So definitely something to consider during your layoff process. An employee can't work because they have to provide childcare while schools are closed. Are they eligible for unemployment? Well, somebody's on your payroll and getting paid, it reduces the likelihood that they're eligible for unemployment. In this scenario, they they would be collecting paid sick leave or emergency FMLA, so they would likely not be eligible for unemployment. And going back to the prior question, we're not going to lay them off because they're on paid sick leave, right? We need a real business reason if we're going to lay somebody off. But employees receiving compensation such as paid leave from their employer in a given week will generally not be eligible to also receive unemployment insurance for that week. There's investigations, and each claim is adjudicated to determine eligibility based on the state's rules, along along with the unique facts of each case, but any claimant affected by the loss of work due to coronavirus should always apply. Once again, this goes back to the question of, you know, somebody— I'm getting this question probably every hour of, you know, oh, hey, would this person qualify for unemployment? And in just so many circumstances, it's just hard to tell until they apply, unfortunately. So let's look at the next one. May I take 80 hours of paid sick leave for self-quarantine and another amount of paid sick leave for another reason under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act. So in essence, the question is, can I double dip? Uh, no, you may take up to 2 weeks or 10 days, 80 hours for a full-time employee, or for a part-time employee, the number of hours equal to the average number of hours that you work over a typical 2-week period of paid sick leave for any combination of qualifying reasons. However, the total The total number of hours for which you're going to get paid sick leave is capped at 80 under the emergency FMLA. Do we still have to provide emergency paid sick leave or emergency FMLA if we shut down or if we furlough or lay off employees? Generally, under the FFCRA, any eligible employees entitled to emergency paid sick leave or emergency FMLA effective April We urge you to consult the recent guidance on receiving immediate dollar-for-dollar reimbursement as well as the plans for small business waivers for leave related to school closures when it would jeopardize the viability of the business. So once again, this, this one comes back to, is it going to jeopardize the viability of the business? All right, so this is one we get. We serve a lot of nonprofits. We're very grateful to do so. "If I'm a nonprofit or public employer, do the FFCRA"— and y'all, I know I'm stumbling over these acronyms time and time again, so bear with me— "do FFCRA tax credits and reimbursement apply to me?" So most public employers like cities, municipalities, public school districts will not be eligible for the tax credits or reimbursements provided in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Private nonprofit entities, however, are eligible. So public employers like cities, municipalities, and public schools, no. Private nonprofits typically, yes. So unemployment is the, the follow-on to this question that I'm getting a lot of, and it's sort of this question 1B, if you will, is are my employees eligible for unemployment even though we don't pay into unemployment? Unemployment. That's variable. Unemployment is through the state. Many nonprofits do not pay SUI. Nonprofits in South Carolina can actually choose to be exempt from unemployment insurance. But what we see is if employments were— or excuse me, if employees were to draw unemployment in South Carolina, the nonprofit could potentially be on the hook for dollar-for-dollar funding to pay back the benefits. The organizations are So, you know, the final determination on this as it relates to COVID-19, still yet to be determined, but that is how it has played out in the past. And once again, circumstantial under state unemployment. I give you guys just— I don't want to give it to you on every question here, but it's the HR answer for 90% of questions. It depends, right? I hate that it's the answer on some of but there are a lot of variables, particularly when it comes to unemployment, that come into play. So next question, how do I count hours worked by a part-time employee for purposes of paid sick leave or expanded family medical leave? So we touched on this earlier. It's the, the average number of hours worked in a 2-week period. So if you calculate the hours based on the number of hours the employee is normally scheduled to work, if they're not known, you can use a 6-month average to calculate the average hours. If they haven't worked there 6 months, then then you are going to use that reasonable definition. And if you have no such agreement in place, you can calculate an appropriate number of hours based on the average day they were scheduled to work and their upcoming schedules. All right. So next one, I told you they get a little bit more random. So let's talk about the notice for the emergency FMLA and emergency paid sick leave. Where do I post this notice? Since most of my workers are now teleworking, where do I electronically post this notice? So it's a little bit more obvious when you are in the office and everybody's still working from the office. You put it in the same conspicuous place that you would put your labor law posters and all that. What about the fact that everybody's now been quarantined and is working remote? Well, each employer— each covered employer, pardon me, must post a notice of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act requirements in a conspicuous place on its premises. "You may satisfy this requirement by emailing or direct mailing this notice to employees or posting this notice on an employee information internal or external website." So, we definitely— I mean, if it's me, I'm going to hit them with all three. I'm going to pop it in the mail, I'm going to email it, and I'm going to post it in my HR portal. "Do I have to share this notice with recently laid-off individuals?" So obviously something that's coming up is people have been laid off after— over the last 2 weeks. And so we're starting to wonder, what is the application to these people that were recently laid off? Well, no, the FFCRA requirements explained only apply to current employees. So you do not have to share it with anybody who was recently laid off or laid off prior to April 1st. And that's a pretty key statement I don't want to gloss over there. On the last slide. Anyone laid off prior to April 1st. Do I have to give notice of the FFCRA requirements to new hires? Yes. If you hire a job applicant, you must convey this notice to them either by email, direct mail, or by posting this notice on the premises or on the employee information internal or external website. So I know what you're thinking. Great, I made an offer to somebody who starts April 5th. And I'm going to send them this notice and they're going to immediately go on emergency paid sick leave. That is a very real possibility. If my state provides greater protections than the FFCRA, do I still have to post this notice? Yes, all covered employers must still post the federal notice regardless of whether your state provides greater protections. You must comply with both federal and state law. Per the usual. How do FMLA and EPSL relate to each other, especially in regard to caring for children? Now, this is a question that we're starting to get, but I'll tell you, we're going to get it a lot over the next 12 weeks. So the emergency FMLA and emergency paid sick leave both cover caring for children whose school or place of care is closed due to COVID-19 precautions. Though EFMLA has the broader restriction that the child can be under 18 years old. This leave runs concurrently with the first 10 days of EFMLA being paid, which will in many cases coincide with the 80 hours of pay at two-thirds the regular rate under EPFL for full-time employees. So the two can technically coincide, and so definitely something to look out for as we continue to see more cases, and you're going to need to really evaluate some of these on a case-by-case basis. All right. So those are our new frequently asked questions compared to last week. I'm excited to see what the frequently asked questions are that are coming into chat and into my inbox. I would urge you, if you have chatted a question to me, that I am bad about figuring out a way to export all of the chat. So if you want to email me that directly, if I have not answered it at any point during this webinar, you will have a much higher likelihood of getting a response to that question. But I just want to thank everybody for showing up. There's a couple of action items that we want to look at as we continue to assess the best route for our companies, for our team, as it relates to not only restricting contact with each other, keeping each other safe, but trying to maintain productivity. I still go back to this first piece. There's an awful lot of employers that are still going to work, filling up their offices, putting people in close quarters, and really just ignoring the general guidelines. And ultimately probably slowing this down for, for people in the long run. So definitely assess what you can and can't do on site. Make decisions regarding which of these things apply to you, whether it be the remote work, the layoffs, the hiring, and then make a plan. We talked about this last time. Don't just continue to fly by the seat of your pants. We're starting to get more and more information. Your plan is going to change, but one of the things that we're consistently seeing and having with our own team are all-hands meetings where we're just communicating, hey, here's where we're at, here's where we're going, here's what we know, and we'll continue to keep you up to date as things change, but we want you to understand. And sometimes that's best communicated in all hands, other times it's best communicated one-on-one, depending on your team size and situation. So have a plan, make sure you're communicating regularly with your team, and ultimately update your policies and procedures and document the decisions you're making. These decisions are not made in a vacuum that it's going to somehow be wiped free in 6 months. You are going to need to justify and validate all the decisions you make during this process. So make sure you are keeping up with your documentation. I said it at the end of the last webinar, I'll say it again, you know, in 2008 when the economy took a dive, people started grasping at straws 6 to 8 months down the road when they're still out of work and can't find anywhere to go if things don't get better before they get worse. So definitely something to consider as you're making your plan and continuing to act on your daily items. I end nearly every presentation I do with this slide, and I will continue to today. So you're going to see it again, another repeat. But it's important for us to remember that our teammates are our number one asset. It is time to show empathy and do what we can to take great care of our team, make sure that we are creating the type of place that they want to come back to when this is all said and done, even if we do have to lay them off. You know, that's one of the key components of this whole thing. I've had a lot of folks lately talking to me about, well, you know, we're doing everything we can, we're emptying out our coffers, our bank accounts, we're taking out loans, everything we can to just keep our people working. Well, there might be other options to help you out there, and the best thing that you can do is not only take great care of your people, but take care of your company so that they have a great place to come back to if you do have to lay them off, but also that they have a great place to work right now if you can. So thank you so much for joining us. Once again, my name is Matt Beatty. I'm the CEO of ERG Payroll and HR. HR. We've been trying to proactively help as many people as we possibly can during this circumstance. So, if you think there's somebody that would be— get value out of this conversation, then share this information with them. Share the Dropbox with them. Share whatever you can. As you all know, we are a mission-driven organization. We currently give away 5% of our business to nonprofits that help educate children and transition the homeless back to permanent housing. We do things a different way, and this is another example how we want to do that and serve our, our fellow local businesses and businesses all around the country. So thank you so much for joining me today. Drop those questions to me in an email. I look forward to speaking to each of you. Thanks and have an awesome day.