Good morning,
I apologize if the answer to my question is in the archives, but I searched archives and only found a posting from March 23, so am posting for updated advice.
We have employees who have taken leave d/t COVID 19 exposures. According to the FFCRA, employees are entitled to 80 hours of paid leave for circumstances such as this. However, I’ve been advised that some businesses of less than 50 employees may be exempt from this if complying with this would be a financial hardship to the viability of the business. Is this correct?
How is jeopardizing viability of the practice characterized? We wouldn’t need to close our doors if we paid 1 or 2 employees, but with increasing exposures likely, it would be challenging to pay employees on an ongoing basis. But, we have had to hire prn employees to catch up on backlog of work d/t employee leave, which is adding to our payroll. Additionally, we are currently looking to hire other longer term employees to help with our workflow and to be available when employees need leave.
For background, we are a new 2 physician practice still getting established…
TIA