NYC Amends Its Safe And Sick Leave Law … Again

Key Takeaways

• Recent amendments to the New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act will require New York City employers to provide employees with 32 hours of unpaid safe and sick leave annually as well as expand the reasons for employees to use available leave under the act.
• The amendments also roll back employer obligations to provide temporary schedule changes under the New York City Temporary Schedule Change Act.
• Employers should make necessary updates to handbooks and policies before the amendments take effect Feb. 22, 2026.

In October, the New York City Council enacted amendments to the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA), introducing new obligations for employers, expanding employee rights and codifying the rules promulgated earlier this year requiring paid prenatal leave. Providing some relief to employers, the amendments also eliminate employers' obligation to provide temporary schedule changes under the Temporary Schedule Change Act (TSCA). As 2025 winds down and employers start updating employee handbooks for 2026, these changes, which take effect Feb. 22, 2026, require immediate attention to ensure compliance.

Additional Unpaid Leave Entitlement

Currently, New York City employers must provide up to 40 or 56 hours of paid safe and sick leave under ESSTA, depending on the employer's size and income. The recent amendments to ESSTA do not change that. However, they do impose a new obligation on employers. Now, all employers, regardless of size, must provide all employees with a separate bank of 32 hours of unpaid safe and sick leave. (Yes, this is in addition to the 40 or 56 hours of paidsafe and sick leave and the 20 hours of prenatal leave already required!) As set forth below, employees are now entitled to three different banks of leave, which must be kept – and tracked – separately:

The new unpaid safe and sick leave of 32 hours must be made immediately available to employees at the time of hire and must also be made available to all employees on the first day of each calendar year. Although employers cannot impose a waiting period on usage of the unpaid leave, they may set a minimum usage increment of up to four hours per day (just like with paid safe and sick leave).

If an employee requests time off for an ESSTA-covered reason, employers must apply available paid leave before unpaid leave, unless the employee asks to use unpaid leave first. Like with paid leave, employers must include, on pay stubs or other documentation provided to employees each pay period, the amount of unpaid safe and sick time used and available to the employee. However, unlike paid safe and sick leave, employers are not required to carry over unused unpaid leave from year to year.

Expanded Permissible Uses

In addition to expanding the amount of leave available to NYC employees, the amendments expand the reasons employees may use such leave. When the amendments go into effect, employees may use safe and sick leave for the following reasons:

• Caregiving: Employees who qualify as caregivers may use available leave to care for a minor child or "care recipient." A caregiver is "a person who provides direct and ongoing care for a minor child or a care recipient," and a care recipient is "a person with a disability, including a temporary disability, who (i) is the caregiver's family member or resides in the caregiver's household and (ii) relies on the caregiver for medical care or to meet the needs of daily living."
• Subsistence benefits and housing: Employees may use their leave "to initiate, attend or prepare for a legal proceeding or hearing related to subsistence benefits or housing to which the employee, the employee's family member, or the employee's care recipient is a party, or to take actions necessary to apply for, maintain, or restore subsistence benefits or shelter for the employee or their family member or care recipient."
• Workplace violence: An employee may take leave if the employee or their family member has been a victim of workplace violence, which is defined as "any act or threat of violence against an employee that occurs in a place of employment."
• Public disasters: Employees may use safe and sick time if a public disaster (as defined by ESSTA) results in (i) the closure of the employee's workplace, (ii) a directive from public officials to remain indoors or avoid travel, or (iii) a need to care for a child whose school or child care provider has closed or restricted in-person operations.

Narrowing of the Temporary Schedule Change Act

While the ESSTA amendments giveth, they also taketh away. Starting Feb. 22, employers are no longer required to grant employees' temporary schedule change requests.

As of now, under the TSCA, employers are required to grant employees two temporary schedule changes per year for "personal events" such as caregiving for a minor child, attending a legal proceeding or other reasons permitted under ESSTA. Going forward, however, employees may ask for a temporary schedule change and employers are prohibited from retaliating against the employee for making the request, but employers are not required to grant the request. Now, employers must only respond to the employee – and either grant or deny the request or propose an alternative – "as soon as practicable."

Next Steps for Employers

Although the amendments do not go into effect for a few months, employers should start reviewing and revising current sick leave and temporary schedule change policies and practices now to ensure compliance with the amendments. A great time to do this is with other employee handbook updates, which often take place around now. Employers should also make sure that managers and human resources personnel are aware of the expanded permissible uses for sick leave and the changes to the TSCA so they can respond appropriately when employees make leave or schedule change requests.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.