Effective Date of Maryland Healthy Working Families Act

As we previously announced (https://smithdowney.com/2018/01/new-maryland-paid-sick-leave-law/), the Maryland General Assembly voted on January 12, 2018 to override Governor Hogan’s veto of the “Maryland Healthy Working Families Act,” a bill that requires Maryland employers to provide “Earned Sick and Safe Leave” (ESS) to employees (unpaid for employers with fewer than 15 employees who work in Maryland).

Although many commentators expected that the General Assembly would act to delay the implementation of this law, it failed to do so. Therefore, the law has gone into effect and employers must take immediate steps to comply if they have not yet done so. These steps include amending policies and procedures. For example, employers must notify employees that they have the right to file a complaint with the Commissioner of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation (DLLR) if they believe their rights under the law have been violated. As outlined in our January 15, 2018 e-Alert (see link above), employers also must satisfy certain record-keeping obligations.

The Maryland DLLR has prepared a sample employee notice poster, and will be releasing additional guidance and model documents in the near future. The sample poster is available at:

http://www.dllr.state.md.us/paidleave/paidleaveposter.pdf

Please contact Doug Desmarais (ddesmarais@smithdowney.com) or Kerstin Miller (kmiller@smithdowney.com) if you have questions about this new law or if we can assist in your compliance efforts.