On July 31, 2025, New York’s COVID Paid Emergency Leave Law (“the PELL”), which provided paid leave for isolations and (at one point) quarantines due to COVID-19 illness/exposure, expired.
As a result of the PELL’s expiration, employers are now able to treat COVID-19-related sick leave the same as sick leave due to any other contagious illness. Therefore, employees who seek leave time for a COVID-19-related infection can now be required to use accrued sick time (or other paid time off, as applicable) in order to cover the absence. Private sector employees and those public sector employers who have adopted it may also be entitled to leave pursuant to New York’s Paid Family Leave Law to care for a family member’s COVID-19-related serious health condition, although not for the employee’s own COVID-19-related serious health condition or quarantine when an employee or the employee’s family member is exposed to COVID-19.
Notwithstanding the PELL’s expiration, employers that choose to mandate that their employees not report to work if they are exposed to or contract COVID-19 will, as was the case before the law expired, be required to pay for the employee’s absence without charge to the employee’s accruals because there is no legal mandate that employees remain home in these scenarios.
Public employers should also be aware that, pursuant to Civil Service Law § 159-c, it continues to be unlawful to dismiss, discipline or otherwise retaliate against an employee because the employee used leave to quarantine, seek medical treatment or engage in any other activity related to a COVID-19 diagnosis. This is particularly important in the context of, for example, disciplining employees for excessive absenteeism where a portion of the absences are due to a COVID-19 infection.
In addition, all employers should review and update their employee handbooks and leave policies to the extent that they address COVID-19 and related leave time. You should also review your collective bargaining agreements, employment agreements, memoranda of agreement and board resolutions addressing COVID-19 to determine whether any need to be revised consistent with the PELL’s expiration.
If you have any questions about the PELL’s expiration and its impact on your workplace, please contact any of our Labor Relations & Employment Law attorneys.
