Current Events > Employers no longer required to give paid leave for employees with COVID-19

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https://www.marketplace.org/2021/01/01/congress-lets-paid-sick-family-and-medical-leave-mandate-expire/

Since March, when Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, many employers have been required to offer two weeks of paid sick leave to anyone who got sick with COVID-19 or had to quarantine because theyd been exposed, and up to 12 weeks of partially-paid family and medical leave for parents who had to stay home with a child whose school or daycare closed. But that mandate, which applied to companies with between 50 and 500 employees, expired on Dec. 31. Congress did not extend it when it passed the $900 billion COVID relief bill just before Christmas. It really is devastating for working people, particularly, and the public, said Tanya Goldman, senior policy attorney at The Center for Law and Social Policy. Were at a moment when the country is experiencing over 200,000 new cases a day of the virus. One study found that the emergency paid sick days reduced COVID by 15,000 cases a day in states that had newly-gained access to paid sick days.

That wont end well.

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Thats a Congress issue not an issue to take with your employer. Your employer was paid whenever their staff tested positive and those funds would go toward the sick leave. If theres no funds for the sick leave then the employer cant do anything about it without risking closing down.

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This should be handled by the Unemployment Insurance system anyway.