New Paid Family Leave Law and Update to Workers’ Comp for Washington, D.C.

Information on D.C.’s Paid Family Leave

The District of Columbia has a new Paid Family Leave (PFL) Law with an effective date of July 1, 2020. The Paid Family Leave notice has just been released in both English and Spanish. This required posting has a publication date of 12/2019.

Under the new law, covered employees may receive up to 8 weeks of Paid Family Leave benefits in a year:

• Up to 8 weeks of parental leave to bond with a new child
• Up to 6 weeks of family leave to care for a family member
• Up to 2 weeks of medical leave for an employee’s own serious health condition

In order to receive benefits, employees must have worked for their employer before experiencing a covered event.

While the law doesn’t go into effect until July 1, 2020, employers are required to post the Paid Family Leave notice in their workplaces by February 1, 2020.

Last but certainly not least, employers must notify employees that they are covered under the PFL program as follows:

• At the start of employment (providing the employee was hired after January 2020)
• At least once a year beginning in 2020
• If an employee has ever asked the employer for leave that could qualify for benefits under the PFL program

New Requirement for Workers’ Compensation

District of Columbia employers are now required to send a copy of the First Report of Injury or Occupational Disease form to the nearest claim office or their insurer no later than 10 working days after the date of knowledge of an employee’s occupational injury or disease.

We Make Compliance Easy!

If you have not already done so, we encourage you to order our 1-Year Compliance Plan so that you will automatically receive the updated District of Columbia poster as soon as it is available. And because we provide free poster updates for mandatory changes, no matter how many occur during the plan year, you can always count on Poster Compliance Center to keep your business in compliance!