On Labor Day, President Obama passed an Executive Order requiring Federal Contractors to provide all employees to paid sick leave. The order establishes a ratio of 1 hour of accumulated sick leave for every 30 hours worked on a Federal contract or seven days a year.

The Executive Order will also change the requirements for those operating under the Davis-Bacon or the Service Contract Acts, which provided for sick time only after one-year of employment.  New requirements will be written that grant all Federal contractor employees access to accumulated sick time from day one.

Do you currently provide paid sick leave to employees working on Federal Contracts?

Yes:  If you are currently providing all employees working on Federal contracts at least 7 days of sick leave annually, you’re biggest change may be to your employee handbooks.

No:  If however your sick leave policy varies in structure to the new ratio laid out in the Executive Order, you must make this change for all future Federal contracts. Be aware, this includes changing general “Paid-Time Off” (PTO) designations to separate out a pool for Sick-leave and a one for PTO.

You can find more details in this White House Fact Sheet.    If you have a further questions please don’t hesitate to contact Coley GCS for Government Contracts Compliance support.