The Department of Labor (DOL) has added a number of new FAQs on the expanded leave provisions enacted as part of the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA) (P.L. 116-127). Also today, DOL announced it is ending its temporary period of non-enforcement of these FFCRA provisions.

The newly added FAQs include the following nine questions posed and answered:

• ​80. How do I compute the number of hours of paid sick leave for my employee who has irregular hours?
• 81. How do I compute the number of hours I must pay my employee who has irregular hours for each day of expanded family and medical leave taken?
• 82. How do I compute my employee's average regular rate for the purpose of the FFCRA?
• 83. How do I compute the average regular rate of my employee who is paid a fixed salary each workweek?
• 84. May I round when computing the number of hours of paid sick leave I must provide an employee with an irregular schedule or the number of hours I must pay such an employee for each day of expanded family and medical leave taken?
• 85. What six-month period is used to calculate the regular rate under the FFCRA when, for example, my employee takes paid sick leave, gets better, and then one week (or one month or three months) later, takes expanded family and medical leave? Or perhaps the employee takes intermittent leave throughout several months in 2020? In other words, do I have to determine and review a new six-month period every time my employee takes leave?
• 86. Under what circumstances may an employer require an employee to use his or her existing leave under a company policy and when does the choice belong to the employee under the Department's regulations, specifically 826.160(c) and 826.60(b), 826.24(d), 29 CFR 826.23(c)?
• 87. Are stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders the same as quarantine or isolation orders? If so, when can I take leave under the FFCRA for reasons relating to one of those orders?
• 88. If my employer refuses to provide paid sick leave or refuses to compensate me for taking paid sick leave, and the Department brings an enforcement action on my behalf, am I entitled to recover just the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour of leave, or can I recover the entire amount due under the FFCRA?

These and all other DOL FAQs on FFCRA's expanded leave provisions are posted here.

In a related move, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also added a new FAQ to its page on paid leave. The newly added question follows:

67. If an Eligible Employer that employs a health care provider or an emergency responder excludes that employee from eligibility for required paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave to be taken for one or more reasons related to COVID-19 but not for other such reasons, may the Eligible Employer claim the credit for paid leave it provides to that employee for any "non-excluded" reason?  

The complete set of IRS FAQs is posted here. 

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