Holiday pay, remote work policy, and bereavement leave

The legal side of things: One of the trickiest parts of having any type of remote workforce is making sure you're following the laws for whatever jurisdiction they're in. Employers often think that if their primary business is in one location, that location's laws are what apply across the board. That can land you in hot water. The location where the employee is working is what determines the applicable laws.

Let's say your office is in Utah and you decide to keep working with an employee when they move to Los Angeles, California. The laws in those states are drastically different, and there are even local city and county laws for this employee that go beyond the strict CA laws. Therefore, if your employee is working out of Los Angeles, you’ll be nowhere close to legal compliance if you’re basing everything on an employee handbook that was written for a Utah-based company.

Note that this is a wrinkle even when you have multiple office locations, or remote employees, within the same state. If someone is working in a different city or county than your main office, you need to make sure that you're following those local laws as well.

The same rule applies to labor law posters. Even if an employee is remote (in the same state as you or not), they need to have access to any required labor law posters. Obviously, they can't see the ones posted in your office, but you can provide them digitally. CEDR members can find labor law posters for every state in backstageHR and use the Vault to share them with employees - including some new federal posters that all employers need to update now.

Our advice? Leave this to the experts. We've seen a lot of employers attempt to do this themselves only to miss a major law and end up scrambling to get back into compliance later on.

Now for the human approach: There's no doubt allowing employees to work remotely has changed the way we hire and manage. The important thing to remember is that an employee working from home still functions the same as an in-office employee. They need to go through the same onboarding process that an in-person new hire would, fill out the same paperwork (don't forget there's a new I-9 form!), and go through the same training.

This also means that they need to be held to the same security standards, which is especially important if they're dealing with any protected health information. CEDR offers HIPAA training that is perfect for remote workers since it's all done online.

Of course, you also have to think about how you will monitor remote employees' performance and maintain communication with them. It can be difficult if not done properly, but it doesn’t have to be! Opening positions to remote employees can have a positive impact on your candidate pool. If you think a remote employee will be a good fit, it’s worth going through the steps to prepare to manage them properly. Remember to create a remote work policy that covers remote work guidelines and responsibilities. CEDR members can contact the Solution Center for this policy.

As a reminder to CEDR members, it's extremely important that you keep us updated on any new locations you acquire or remote employees that you hire so we can make sure you're receiving the correct law updates and policies for your size and location.

Am I required to provide bereavement leave?

The legal side of things: Up until recently, the answer would have been “no” across the board. That’s changed over the last couple of years, and now there are several states that require bereavement leave in some capacity.

Depending on where you’re located and how many employees you have, you may be required to provide anywhere from 5 to 14 days for bereavement. CEDR members can go to backstageHR to read about recent bereavement leave laws that several states have passed.

Bereavement leave laws are rather new, but with more and more states expanding time off benefits for employees, we wouldn’t be surprised if we see similar laws in other states soon. There’s no federal law that addresses bereavement, so if no state law applies, the decision to offer bereavement leave is entirely up to you.

Now for the human approach: It’s entirely possible to not offer any additional time off for bereavement and require employees to use their accrued vacation time or paid time off hours to cover their absence.

However, this is obviously a sensitive area. Being forced to use their paid time off benefits for something completely out of their control, and something they are likely already quite upset about, can result in a dip in morale. It can also put an employee in a position of having to forgo attending a funeral based on this additional outside factor, which again isn’t great for your ongoing relationship with them.

We find that most employers that we work with offer at least a couple of extra paid or unpaid days on top of any other time off employee benefits. Providing additional time off is a good way to show support during a difficult time. Note that this doesn't have to mean giving another bank of paid time off to your employee benefits package. Allowing them to take unpaid time off without being penalized allows the employee to take time if needed, without worrying about potentially using up PTO they may have been planning to use for something else.

While the most common reason for taking bereavement leave is to attend a funeral, it’s possible that an employee may want to use the time to attend a celebration of life later on, or to say their goodbyes rather than attend a service. Keep this in mind when you receive a request for time off.

Whatever policy you choose to implement, make sure it’s clearly detailed in your employee handbook and you apply it consistently.