Emergency Paid Sick Leave Problems

     From Government Executive:

... The first coronavirus response bill signed into law in mid-March included a provision called the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act, which provides employees in both the public and private sectors with up to 80 hours of paid sick leave, as well as up to 10 weeks of paid leave at two-thirds of their regular pay for workers who have child and dependent care responsibilities due to school and daycare closures related to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Although the Labor Department offered employers a 30-day “non-enforcement period,” that ran out more than a month ago. As of Friday, the Social Security Administration still had not begun offering the benefit, and it has told stakeholders that the Interior Department’s Interior Business Center has said it will not have implemented it in its payroll software until July. 

The Interior Business Center did not respond to a request for comment, but a spokesperson told Federal News Network that it has provided a workaround to customer agencies until it can update the software. 

Couture said that Social Security has declined to use that workaround, proposing that employees file for weather and safety leave instead. Under this plan, employees would be paid their full pay rate, and likely would be forced to pay the remainder back once the new system is in place.  ...

     If you’re wondering what the Department of the Interior has to do with it, the story is that that agency operates something like a contractor. For a price they handle payroll functions for other agencies. I would have thought that Social Security is plenty big enough to handle its own payroll matters but apparently not.