Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com January 5, 2015 • Worcester Business Journal 19 N ovember's election brought an early Christmas "gift" for Massachusetts employers: the new sick leave law. The law, which will take effect July 1, requires paid sick leave and may impact many different employer policies, including vacation, attendance, and holiday pay policies, to name a few. How employees gain 'sick time' The new law will affect all Massachusetts employers. Those with at least 11 employees must provide paid sick leave to all of them. Employers with fewer than 11 employees must also provide sick leave, but it can be unpaid. Under the law, employees will accrue paid sick leave beginning July 1 at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 40 hours per calendar year. However, employees will not be eligible to take the paid leave until they have worked for the employer for at least 90 days. The law permits employees to carry over up to 40 hours of accrued sick leave from one year to the next, but they're not entitled to use more than 40 hours in any calendar year. What the law allows The law permits employees to take leave for their own illness, injury or health condition, or that of a child, spouse, parent or parent-in-law. Employees may also take paid leave to attend routine medical appointments for themselves or any of those relatives, or to address the psychological, physical, or legal effects of domestic violence. When the need for leave is foreseeable, an employee need only make a "good faith effort" to provide notice "in advance." The employer and the law So, how do you know an employee is taking leave for one of these reasons? Most times, you have to take his word for it. Under the law, an employer may only require certification from an employee's health care provider to verify the need for leave if an employee uses earned sick time for more than 24 consecutively scheduled work hours. Most importantly, the law prohibits retaliation against any employee for requesting or using earned sick leave, for opposing practices he believes to be in violation of the law, or for supporting a co-worker's exercising of his rights under the law. Additionally, the use of leave cannot be considered a factor in any employment action such as an evaluation, promotion, discipline or termination. The law leaves open a number of questions, including when to determine employer size and what constitutes "advance notice." The attorney general is expected to issue regulations and address these issues, as well as others. In the interim, employers need to update impacted policies and have them reviewed by labor and employment counsel for compliance with the new law. n Amelia J. Holstrom is an associate attorney at Skoler, Abbott & Presser, based in Springfield and Worcester. She can be reached at (413) 737-4753 or at aholstrom@skoler-abbott.com. By Bob Datz Bob Datz operates datzmedia, based in West Brookfield. He provides marketing communications, web communications and publicity services. He's also a journalist and editor. Contact him at bob@datzmedia.com. 10 Things I Know About... The new 'sick leave' law KNOW HOW 10) Legacy media matter. Newspapers are still the source of a disproportionate share of original content that finds its way into "the media." Not only is their web content archived but aggregators pick it up and spread it around on multiple sites. 9) "Home run" balls. Yet, those "old" media are financially stressed, sometimes to the publicist's advantage. A knowledgeable publicist can many times get a message out virtually unfiltered. 8) Half a loaf is fine. PR and marketing communications being long-haul processes, it's OK to share the limelight, even with competition, if a media outlet can be nudged to focus on your type of enterprise. If the competition is bigger, all the better for you to be mentioned in the same breath. 7) Repurpose it. Including news releases on your own web site and optimizing them for search will help your visibility on the Internet. 6) Have a purpose. Don't just throw something out once in a blue moon. Always look for opportunities without going to the well too often. But when possible, find value in them for the potential customer or client. 5) Integrate with other marketing. You will get a bounce from some good PR, but don't let it just echo into silence. Rather than going a la carte with PR, tie it into your wider marketing communications plan (5A: Have one of those.) 4) No one-size-fits-all. Batch mailing a single press release is less effective. Some have proclaimed the death of the press release, but it's about customization, which takes actual work. 3) Know the recipient. Know what kinds of items they like to cover or promote, and play to that as you tailor individual overtures. 2) Form relationships. This isn't as easy as it once was, when a bottle of whiskey would just show up at someone's doorstep. But where possible, view your targets as your friends and provide them with value. 1) Free publicity isn't free. Consistently effective publicity means taking many or all of these steps. n How the state's referendum-passed legislation will impact companies' policies Public relations D elegating tasks at work is not as easy as it seems. There is a temptation to say, "Oh, it's just faster to do it myself." But in doing that, employee involvement and empowerment can suffer. Plus, no matter how hard you work, you can't do it all. That limits your success, and the success of your group. Here are three ways to take a deep breath — give up a bit of control — and delegate tasks at work: Track it. When you delegate to an employee, communicate key feedback dates. Susan M. Heathfield at HumanResources.About.com says this will accomplish two goals. One, it "provides you with the feedback you need without causing you to micromanage your direct report or team," she writes. Also, you will have the chance to influence the direction of the project if need be, or decisions at crucial phases. Ask the right questions. In deciding if a task is appropriate to delegate or not, an article at MindTools. com suggests these considerations: Does someone else have — or can they be given — the correct information to do the job? Does the task present an opportunity for the person to develop their skills? Will this task reoccur in a similar form in the future? Do you have time to dedicate to training, questions and rework if necessary? Should I really delegate this task? (e.g., Recruiting people for your team may be best handled by you.) Give the entire task to one person. It's a better practice than giving pieces of the job to different team members. One person put in charge breeds ownership of the project, says an article at ManagementHelp.org by Carter McNamara. "This gives the person complete responsibility for doing the task and increases the person's motivation to do the task, as well," he writes. n 101: DELEGATING WORK >> BY SUSAN SHALHOUB Special to the Worcester Business Journal BY AMELIA J. HOLSTROM Special to the Worcester Business Journal Skoler, Abbott and Presser will present a free briefing on the sick leave law Jan. 22 at the Sheraton Hotel in Springfield. For additional details or to register, visit the firm's web site: www.skoler-abbott.com.

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