This is the second in a series of posts on the new Paid Sick Leave Guidance from the Connecticut Department of Labor.

Back in June, I discussed who is a “service worker” under the new Paid Sick Leave law.  It is a detailed list that  includes butchers and bakers but not candlestick makers.

Occupations and Their Codes are More Important Than Ever

It’s not quite as simple as that, of course. The definition of a service worker is “an employee primarily engaged in an occupation with one of the following broad or detailed occupation code numbers and titles, as defined by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics Standard Occupational Classification system or any successor system.”  It then provides a list of code numbers and job titles.

But even that is not the end of the discussion, according to the new  guidance from the Department of Labor:

The statute provides a complete list of classifications that qualify as service workers. If a job title is not listed specifically, it does not mean that the job is not included in one of the prescribed classifications. The employer must read the broad and detailed occupations and descriptions provided on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website: www.bls.gov/soc.

In addition, if an employee performs more than one job, the employer must use the classification in which the employee is primarily engaged to determine his/her status as a service worker.

Stated another way, employers need to review the database of occupations and descriptions to determine if what the employee does (job title notwithstanding) falls within the job classifications in the statute.

This can lead to even more questions. For example, the SOC description for “Childcare workers” is as follows:

Attend to children at schools, businesses, private households, and childcare institutions. Perform a variety of tasks, such as dressing, feeding, bathing, and overseeing play. Excludes “Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education” (25-2011) and “Teacher Assistants” (25-9041).  Illustrative examples: Nanny, Au Pair, Daycare Provider

So, preschool teachers are out but those workers who oversee preschool-age kids are covered. Got it?

Then there is the “Front Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers” which is defined as follows:

Directly supervise and coordinate activities of retail sales workers in an establishment or department. Duties may include management functions, such as purchasing, budgeting, accounting, and personnel work, in addition to supervisory duties.

This could be pretty broad.

So, as an employers, you have a few main options. First, you can review all your job descriptions and determine which ones are covered by the act, one by one.  Or second, as this is probably what the General Assembly was hoping for, you can just implement a paid sick policy in general without regard to job description.

Either way, don’t just rely on the titles contained in the “Service Worker” definition.  The Paid Sick Leave Guidance suggests doing something more.