New York City Amends Safe and Sick Time Regulations

​On Sept. 15, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection adopted changes to the regulations governing the city’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA). The effective date of the changes is Oct. 15.

In light of increased remote working arrangements, the regulations now state that an employee who performs work only while physically located outside of New York City is not covered by the ESSTA. An employee with a primary work location outside of New York City may be covered by the ESSTA “if they regularly perform, or are expected to regularly perform, work in New York City” during a calendar year.

For example, the regulations note that a retail worker based at an employer’s New Jersey location will be covered by the ESSTA if they are asked to cover “one to three six- to eight-hour shifts in New York City” when needed due to staffing shortages, even if in some months the employee may not work in New York City at all. Likewise, an employee working at a construction site in New York City for a fixed-term, eight-week project will be covered by the ESSTA while working in New York City, even though their normal base of operations is outside of New York City. For both of these examples, to the extent that such an employee may be covered by the ESSTA, the amended regulations clarify that hours worked only within the city count as “hours worked” for the purposes of safe and sick time accrual and usage under the ESSTA.

The amended regulations provide two examples of…