Mayor Breed signed into law District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar’s Public Health Emergency Leave ordinance Friday, instantly making some 200,000 San Franciscans eligible to receive two additional weeks of paid leave.
Recent reports show over 27,000 jobs were lost in the Bay Area last month; half of those job losses were recorded in the San Francisco-San Mateo region. While by no means an umbrella fix to the current financial plights many San Francisco residents are facing, Mayor Breed did, however, sign a piece of legislation into law Friday that'll give two additional weeks of paid leave for applicable individuals.
I’m grateful to everyone we worked with on this critical legislation, especially: @jwjsf @sflabor @LegalAidAtWork @ABetterBalance. I’m grateful to my colleagues who passed it unanimously, especially my early partner @MattHaneySF, and to @LondonBreed for making it effective today.
— Gordon Mar (@D4GordonMar) April 18, 2020
“As the crisis progresses, we’ve heard more and more about domestic workers, grocery workers and warehouse workers who are falling sick or dying of COVID 19,” said Kung Feng, executive director of Jobs With Justice San Francisco, according to KRON4. “Now, two hundred thousand San Francisco workers have public health emergency leave to protect themselves, their families and the public. This is a life-saving measure.”
The law, effective immediately, allows employees who work for large companies within city limits to take two additional weeks of fully paid leave — in addition to their existing benefits. Per KPIX, the following need to be relevant in order for an employee to secure said fiscal olive branch:
- If an employee is sick
- If an employee needs to take care of a family member
- If an employee is unable to work because of shelter-in-place
- If an employee is 60 or older, or has a compromised immune system
Also under the new law, other frontline workers — doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers — can also have access to an additional two weeks of fully paid leave, should they demonstrate symptoms of COVID-19.
“Our doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers are working on front lines in the midst of a pandemic, and it is in the interest of public health to ensure that those workers do not have to go to work if they are sick,” Mar added. “These workers are taking care of us when we need it most; and when they need it most, we need to take care of them.”
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Image: Wikimedia Commons
