EPSLA/E-FMLA Benefit FAQs

Documentation, Payroll Processing, and Benefit Calculation

Overview

From the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR)

Effective April 1, 2020 the federal government enacted the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which includes the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA) and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (E-FMLA).

Under the EPSLA, employees who are unable to work or telework are entitled to two-weeks of emergency paid sick leave for sick leave related to COVID-19.

E-FMLA requires certain employers to provide employees who have worked for the employer for 30-days with up to 12-workweeks of paid FMLA leave if they are unable to work or telework for specified reasons related to COVID-19. Specifically, eligible employees can take up to 12-workweeks of leave to provide care for their child whose school or daycare is closed because of COVID-19. Employees do not have to qualify by having worked for the employer for 12-months or have worked 1,250 hours in the 12-months preceding the leave to be eligible for E-FMLA. Payments for E-FMLA are processed by the department.

The first two weeks of E-FMLA are unpaid, although employees can elect to use their two weeks of paid sick leave discussed above. For weeks 3 to 12 of E-FMLA, employees will be paid two-thirds of their salary, up to $200/per day up to a total of $10,000. Employees can elect to use leave credits to supplement their E-FMLA. The maximum daily entitlement and overall total are the same regardless of the employee’s time base.

Employment History Documentation

What is the effective date of the 215 PAR transaction at the start of the EPSLA benefit?
The effective date is the approved benefit start date.

What date should be entered in the Remarks section of the 215 PAR transaction for EPSLA?
Enter the approved benefit start date. Enter it as “EPSLA MM/DD/YY”.

What is the effective date of the 215 PAR transaction at the completion of the EPSLA benefit?
The effective date is the completion date of the EPSLA benefit. This may not extend past 12-31-20.

What is the effective date of the 215 PAR transaction at the start of the E-FMLA benefit?
The effective date is the employee’s first work day following the 10-day unpaid benefit period.

What date should be entered in the Remarks section of the 215 PAR transaction for E-FMLA?
Enter the same date as the effective date of the 215 PAR transaction for E-FMLA. Enter it as “E-FMLA MM/DD/YY”.

What is the effective date of the 215 PAR transaction at the completion of the E-FMLA benefit?
The effective date is the completion date of the E-FMLA benefit. This may not extend past 12-31-20.

What if the employee’s time reduction is more than 10/11 days in a 21/22 day pay period?
Key a 715 PAR transaction with total time to be paid and qualify the pay period. See PAM section 3.136.

What if you cannot determine employee eligibility for EPSLA/E-FMLA by master payroll cutoff?
Key an S57 PAR transaction and qualify the pay period, unless the employee has true dock not related to E-FMLA.

Payroll Processing

What PIP transaction do I use to key prior to master payroll cutoff for an employee on E-FMLA with partial or no supplementation?
For employees electing partial or no supplementation, dock should be documented on form STD. 603 and keyed in PIP using the DCK screen.  (Unless there is additional dock, unrelated to E-FMLA, no dock transactions should be keyed in CLAS.)

If I keyed an S57 prior to master payroll cutoff and benefit eligibility has now been determined, how do I get pay to issue when keying in PIP?

1. Void the S57
2. If keying prior to the end of the pay period, process form STD. 603. If keying after payday, process form STD. 603 and form STD. 966.

What do I do if I am unable to key using PIP?
Payments that cannot be keyed via PIP must be submitted on a form STD. 674 to Civil Service Payroll. The EPSLA and/or the E-FMLA benefit period must be noted in the Remarks section of form STD. 674. Current month requests must be submitted after master payroll cutoff and can be mailed, faxed, or emailed using encrypted email to the Personnel and Payroll Services Division.

When submitting documents on the E-FMLA benefit to SCO, please include a print-out of the employee’s computed results from the COVID-19 calculator, if applicable.

Calculations and the E-FMLA Calculator

How do I calculate the E-FMLA benefit for an excluded employee?
An excluded employee will receive the E-FMLA benefit (two-thirds salary) for the full day (not partial day).  The calculator may help compute both E-FMLA benefit and time-worked amounts.

How are holidays treated when calculating an employee’s E-FMLA benefit?
If the holiday falls within a block of time used for E-FMLA, it is treated as part of the benefit and calculated as two-thirds time. If the holiday falls outside of a block of time used for the E-FMLA benefit, it is treated as regular work. If the employee is using the E-FMLA benefit intermittently, and the holiday falls on a day that would be used as E-FMLA benefit, the holiday is treated as a regular workday.

How do I use the calculator for an employee with a non-standard work schedule?
The calculator has been updated to support calculations for employees on alternate work week schedules (AWWS). In the calculator’s AWWS field, select the desired schedule.

The calculator is not designed to calculate E-FMLA benefit pay for hourly employees or semi-monthly employees. Manual calculations are required for these situations.

Why is the calculator rounding the E-FMLA benefit hours up to the hundredth, and the supplementation/benefit dock hours down to the hundredth?

• Employee E-FMLA benefit hours are always rounded up to the hundredth of an hour to ensure that the employee is always whole (never underpaid), and that benefit pay is keyed with the maximum precision (in hours) it can be.
• Employee supplementation (leave time) used and/or any benefit dock (not true dock) are always rounded down to the hundredth of an hour. This ensures that the employee never overpays from their leave when supplementing. The hundredth decimal precision (as opposed to the possible thousandth precision in CLAS) is consistent with PAR/PIP keying, and will always total with other time keyed to 100%.
• While employees may take the E-FMLA benefit in 15 minute increments, after multiplying the benefit time by two-thirds (for the benefit to be two-thirds regular pay), the benefit time to be paid is no longer in 15 minute increments.

Partial Day E-FMLA Benefit Usage with Supplementation Example
22 day pay period
Salary: $4,381/month

• Working 3 hours each day during the pay period
• Receiving 5 hours of E-FMLA –approved benefit each day
  • E-FMLA benefit is two-thirds of the employee’s salary rate (up to $200 per day)
  • The employee may supplement the benefit with one-third salary rate leave credit

Additional examples are presented in Payroll Letter #20-006.

SCO provides a COVID-19 E-FMLA calculator to help compute:

• E-FMLA benefit
• Supplementation
• Benefit dock time
• Regular pay
• True dock time

The calculator’s functionality includes fractional time bases. It also assists departments with tracking employee E-FMLA benefits using a built-in ledger to help ensure that the employee’s maximum benefit does not exceed the $10,000 total.

This information will be updated as new information becomes available and additional guidelines are developed, so check back regularly. If you have additional questions, please contact the Statewide Customer Contact Center at (916) 372-7200.