FMLA - Arizona

Bone marrow/organ donation - state employees

A state employee may be absent with pay for living donor leave provided the employee submits written verification that they are to serve as a donor. The maximum amount of leave is up to 5 work days to serve as bone marrow donor and up to 30 work days to serve as an organ donor.

Paid sick leave

Generally, all employers are covered by the Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act (including the paid sick time provisions).

Accrual

Employees begin accruing earned paid sick time at the onset of employment. Employees must accrue at least one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. How much earned paid sick leave employees are entitled to use, however, depends upon how many employees work for the company.

• For employers with 15 or more employees, employees are not entitled to accrue or use more than 40 hours of paid sick time per year, unless the employer selects a higher limit.
• For employers with fewer than 15 employees, are not entitled to accrue or use more than 24 hours of paid sick time per year, unless the employer sets a higher limit.

Employees accrue paid sick time at the same hourly rate and with the same benefits, including health care benefits, as they normally earn during hours worked.

Qualifying reasons

Employees may use paid sick time for themselves or for family members in the following circumstances:

• Medical care or mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition;
• A public health emergency; or
• Absence due to domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, or stalking.

Family members include the following:

Child: Regardless of age, a biological, adopted or foster child, stepchild or legal ward, a child of a domestic partner, a child to whom the employee stands in loco parentis, or an individual to whom the employee stood in loco parentis when the individual was a minor.

Parent: A biological, foster, stepparent or adoptive parent or legal guardian of an employee or an employee's spouse or domestic partner or a person who stood in loco parentis when the employee or employee's spouse or domestic partner was a minor child.

Spouse/domestic partner: Person to whom the employee is legally married under the laws of any state, or a domestic partner of an employee as registered under the laws of any state or political subdivision.

Other relatives: A grandparent, grandchild, or sibling (whether of a biological, foster, adoptive or step relationship) of the employee or the employee's spouse or domestic partner.

Affinity/association: Any other individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.

Entitlement

Employees may use paid sick time as soon as it is accrued. An employer, however, may require a newly hired employee to wait 90 calendar days after the start of employment before using accrued paid sick time. Employees may use paid sick leave either in hourly increments or the smallest increment the employer’s payroll system uses to account for absences or use of other leave, whichever is smaller.

Exempt employees are presumed to have worked 40 hours per workweek, unless the employee’s normal workweek is less than 40 hours (in which case accrual of paid sick time is based on the employee’s normal workweek).

Unused balances of paid sick time carry over to the next year unless the employer elects to pay an employee for the paid sick time at the end of the year AND provides the employee with an amount of paid sick time that meets or exceeds the law’s requirements is available at the beginning of the subsequent year.

Employers with a policy that provides at least the same amount of paid sick time that may be used for the same purposes and under the same conditions as the law requires, do not need to provide additional paid sick time.

Notices and documentation

When foreseeable, employees must make a good faith effort to provide notice of the need to use paid sick time in advance and should schedule the leave in a manner that does not unduly disrupt the employer’s operations.

Employers may require prior notice of the need for unforeseeable paid sick time as long as there is a written policy containing procedures for providing the notice. The employer must provide an employee with a copy of the written notice.

Employers may require employees to provide reasonable documentation to support the need for paid sick time, but only if the employee uses the leave on three or more consecutive work days. Reasonable documentation could include, for example, a police report, a protective order, signed statement from a domestic or sexual violence program, or a signed statement from a medical or other professional service.

Employers must give employees written notice of the provisions at the beginning of employment.

Employers are to keep records related to paid sick time for at least four years.

Sick leave - state employees

All state employees, except temporary and part-time employees, accrue sick leave at the rate of 3.7 hours bi-weekly. Part-time employees who work ¼ time, ½ time, or ¾ time accrue a proportional amount of sick leave. Part-time employees who work a percentage of full-time other than ¼, ½, or ¾ accrue a proportional amount of sick leave at the next lower rate. Part-time employees who work less than ¼ time and temporary employees are ineligible to accrue sick leave. Sick leave accumulates without limit.

Sick leave is any approved period of paid absence for:

• Illness or injury which renders the employee unable to perform the duties of the position;
• Disability caused by pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage, or abortion;
• Examination or treatment(s) by a licensed healthcare practitioner; or
• Illness, injury, examination, or treatments by a licensed health care practitioner of the employee's spouse, dependent child, or parent.

Sick leave for this purpose cannot exceed 40 hours per calendar year. The state agency head may require submission of evidence substantiating the need for sick leave.

Victims leave

Arizona law indicates that employers with 50 or more employees must allow employees who are victims of a crime or juvenile offense to leave work to exercise their rights to be present at a proceeding. The law does not require employees to be compensated for such time off. The employees may elect to use, or the employer may require the employees to use the employees’ accrued paid vacation, personal leave, or sick leave.

Before taking time off, the employee must provide the employer with a copy of the form or information provided to the employee by the applicable law enforcement agency. The employee must also, if applicable, give the employer a copy of the notice of each scheduled proceeding that is provided to the victim by the responsible agency.

Employers must keep records regarding the employees’ leave confidential.

Employers may limit the leave if it creates an undue hardship. An undue hardship is a significant difficulty and expense to a business and includes the consideration of the size of the employer's business and the employer's critical need of the employees.