The SPSL law requires employers to provide 40 hours of COVID-19 SPSL to full-time employees, or the number of hours that an employee regularly works in one week for employees who are not employed full-time but scheduled to work regularly.  Full-time employees may further receive an additional 40 hours of SPSL if they test positive for COVID-19 and cannot work remotely.

Under the current law, an employer may require that an employee who has received additional SPSL to submit to a second COVID test on or after the fifth day after the positive test that allowed the leave. AB 152 amends the law to allow an employer in cases where the second test is positive, to require a third test within 24 hours. Employers will now be allowed to deny additional COVID-19 SPSL to an employee who refuses to submit to the tests. Additional tests must be provided by the employer at no cost to the employee. Employers are not required to provide new or additional SPSL to employees who have already used all of their 2022 COVID-19 sick pay allotment.

In addition, AB 152 establishes the California Small Business and Nonprofit COVID-19 Relief Grant Program within the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). The program will provide grants of up to $50,000, but “no more than the actual costs incurred for” SPSL between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022, to qualified small businesses and nonprofit organizations with 26 to 49 employees.