​The Dallas City Council recently approved an ordinance that would require Dallas employers to provide paid sick leave for employees.  The maximum amount employees can take annually is:

Other guidelines include:

• Employees would be eligible to accrue 1 hour for every 30 hours worked up to the maximums listed above;
• Accrued, but unused Paid Sick time must be carried into the following year, but the accrual can stop at the maximum annual amounts
• If your current Paid Sick time policy is more generous than the proposed policy, the current policy may be kept in place and providing additional Paid Sick time is not required.

If you offer a a Sick time Policy or Paid Time Off (PTO) plan that allows more time than the maximum annual amounts, you still need to keep updated on this ordinance. In some cases, the state and city Paid Sick time policies may require more generous features than your PTO plan.
Both Austin and San Antonio have passed similar ordinances, which are currently on hold pending litigation, as well as the Texas state legislature has several pending bills that would stop cities from enforcing paid sick leave ordinances.  With these two obstacles, the Dallas paid sick leave ordinance may not become effective. We will keep you updated on the status.

Because the American Disabilities Act (ADA) restricts what you can ask, knowing the guidelines are important. When it comes to asking an employee about any of their health issues, you must make sure the reason you are asking is job related.  Below are general guidelines:

• Cannot Ask--about an employee prescribed drug use unless the side effects of the drugs directly affect their job function.
• Can Ask--(1) health-related questions if they have learned from a third party that an employee’s job functions will be impaired due to prescribed drug use or be a direct threat to safety and (2) to take a medical exam, where only access to the medical examination is allowed.

Remember, an employee’s medical information should always be kept confidential, but you can share with the employee’s supervisor if there are work-related restrictions due to the use.

Bullying’s core elements of the definition include unwanted aggressive behavior; observed or perceived power imbalance; and repetition of behaviors or high likelihood of repetition. If bullying is tied to a protected category, such as age, disability, race or other protected class, then it may constitute unlawful harassment.  Bullying should be addressed in the Employee Handbook, as well as management should communicate by actions and support of policies that bullying is not allowed in the workplace.  The internet site, www.stopbullying.gov, focuses on children bullying but the information is applicable to the workplace as well.