Stay Informed: November Compliance Updates
News November 6, 2024
In August, Governor Healey signed a bill entitled An Act Promoting Access to Midwifery Care and Out-of-Hospital Birth Options. While the bill primarily addresses licensing and regulation of midwives and other perinatal health care providers, it also adds the following reasons for use of the Earned Sick Time law (M.G.L. c 149, § 148C):
- To address the employee’s own physical and mental health needs, and those of their spouse, if the employee or the employee’s spouse experiences pregnancy loss or a failed assisted reproduction, adoption or surrogacy.
The law takes effect November 21, 2024. Employers must allow employees to use sick time for absences due to these occurrences and may wish to update their sick time policies to include the new language.
The Department of Family and Medical Leave (DFML) Released Important Updates Including:
- The 2024 Annual Report – Download here.
- A new One-Pager on Paid Leave for Family Members of Certain Military Personnel – Download here.
- An update on the employees ability to see reported intermittent leave hours in the application website.
- Additional language options for applications – Vietnamese and French language options have been added in addition to English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Haitian-Creole.
Opening on Veterans Day
Massachusetts still maintains rules regarding holiday openings – rules requiring employees to work and rules about obtaining state and/or local permission to open. There are rules about opening on Sundays and holidays, which are available here. Veterans Day is a partially restricted holiday, with specific rules for retailers and manufacturers.
Retail and manufacturing businesses may not open on Veterans Day before 1 pm without a permit from the local police department. This permit tend to be granted routinely, providing a streamlined process for compliance. Note that there is a voluntariness work requirement – if an employee insists on observing these holidays, then you must allow it.
Additional resource below:
- Mass.gov: Working on Sundays and Holidays