The City of Philadelphia Amends Chapter 9-4100 of the Philadelphia Code Entitled “Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces”

The City of Philadelphia amended Chapter 9-4100 of the Philadelphia Code so that certain health care employees are compensated in the event they contract a disease during a pandemic or epidemic event. This amendment requires health care employers to provide certain health care employees with paid sick leave when they miss work and test positive for COVID-19. In order to qualify for this additional COVID-19 pandemic sick leave, the health care employee must have worked for the employer at least 40 hours in the three months prior to contracting COVID-19.

Chapter 9-4100 of the Philadelphia Code was also amended so that employers with 500 or more employees are required to provide up to 112 hours of paid sick leave under certain circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic to Philadelphia employees who request it due to:

• Care for self or family member showing symptoms of COVID-19
• Care for self or family member advised to self quarantine by a health care provider
• Care for self or family during local quarantine
• Childcare closure

A note is not required in order to request public health emergency sick leave. The amendment went into effect on September 17, 2020 and runs through December 31, 2020. A copy of the amendment can be found here.

For more information, please contact a Stevens & Lee attorney.