In the 2023 legislative session, the State of Minnesota passed a law that provides sick and safe time (ESST) to most employees in Minnesota. This new law will be effective as of January 1, 2024 and requires all Minnesota employers to provide paid leave time to  employees who work at least 80 hours in a calendar year. This includes part-time, temporary, and seasonal employees, but does not apply to elected officials or independent contractors. 

The new law requires ESST for three essential reasons:

1. For sick leave for the employee themselves, or the need to care for a sick relative. The definition of relative is defined by the state and included in the policy updates.
2. For safe leave, meaning that if an employee is involved in a domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking situation, they can use this time to meet with attorneys, seek help/assistance, etc.
3. For emergency facility closures, such as if a child's school or care facility closes due to weather and an employee needs to stay home to care for said child. 

For those who qualify under this new law, employees will earn one (1) hour of leave for every 30 hours worked. Employees can accrue up to 48 hours of ESST in a year and those hours are allowed to carry-over from year to year. The maximum amount of ESST leave time that any individual can have is 80 hours. When an employee with ESST accruals leaves employment, those hours will be lost and are not paid out. Should the employee return to employment with the city within 180 calendar days, their ESST accrual balance must be restored to the level it was at their departure. 

Full-time, benefit-eligible employees already accrue sick time at a rate higher than the ESST law: 3.69 hours every two (2) weeks, for a total of eight (8) hours every month. Because this exceeds the state's established accrual rate, nothing will change for current benefit-eligible employee sick time accruals, carry over, or payouts. The only changes needed are to the policy language in order to mirror the three categories of usage as stated above. Full-time employees will continue to be able to accrue sick leave hours up to a maximum of 960 hours. At the time of separation, full-time employees receive a percentage of sick time paid out based on their years of service to the City of Shakopee, a practice that has been in place for many years. 

The attached Personnel Handbook (starting on page 45) shows the proposed changes to the current sick leave section. The first set of redline changes is only applicable to full-time, benefit eligible employees. Again, these changes are only to what an employee can use their sick time for and the individuals covered. Additionally, a new ESST section was added immediately following the sick leave section that is specific to part-time or non-benefit eligible employees who will now be eligible to accrue ESST leave. That drafted language mirrors the newly enacted legislation.