What Businesses Need to Know About West Virginia Sick Leave

West Virginia Leave Laws Overview

West Virginia does not have a mandatory paid sick leave law that requires employers to offer employees protected sick leave. However, if the employer has promised sick leave, paid or unpaid, then they may be under a legal obligation to provide sick leave to their employees.

Some employers choose to offer personal time or paid time off (PTO) that would include both vacation leave or sick leave. These employers who do offer vacation or sick leave must offer it in conjunction with a written policy. If the employer’s employment policy is silent on the subject, then employers must pay our all accrued PTO to the employee upon separation of employment. However, employers are allowed to establish a policy regarding sick leave and disqualifying employees from getting accrued sick leave if they don’t meet certain criteria. One of these criteria could be a requirement that the employee give a 2 week notice before leaving and if the employee does not do this, they forfeit their unpaid vacation or sick leave.

However, employers in West Virginia may be required to offer protected time off for employees with certain conditions. The federal Family Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of protected leave for qualified employees. Some of the protected purposes that are included in FMLA would also typically be used for paid sick leave.

Qualified Employees under FMLA

Employees that qualify for FMLA leave must be employed by a qualified employer. They also must have worked at least 12 months for that employer in the previous 7 years. The time doesn’t have to be concurrent employment. Additionally, in the 12 months previous to the leave, the employee must have worked at least 1,250 hours.

A qualified employer is any employer with at least 50 employees in a 75 mile radius.

Using FMLA for Sick Leave

FMLA provides protected leave for employees to take sick leave in several situations. First, if the employee has a serious health condition which includes a chronic health condition, pregnancy, or permanent health care conditions. .

If the employee has any health condition or physical injury that requires at least one overnight stay in a hospital. It can also include any period of 3 days or more where the employee cannot perform their regular work duties and that requires ongoing care by a health care provider.

Employees who have other chronic health care incapacity. These chronic conditions include asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and even chronic anxiety.

Any type or length of incapacity that is caused by pregnancy is also covered under FMLA. This means that even when an employee has severe morning sickness and must come into work 2 hours late regularly during their pregnancy, that the employee is covered under FMLA leave for that time. Employers must be aware of this protected time for pregnant employees.

Lastly, employees who have long-term conditions can also take time off, even if it’s a half of a day to either treat those conditions, like in the case of chemotherapy physical therapy, dialysis. If the condition isn’t treatable, then the employee can still take time related to the illness. This would be the case for conditions such as alzheimer’s, stroke, and terminal diseases.

Other Types of Leave in West Virginia

West Virginia doesn’t provide paid leave for employees who leave work to serve on a jury or who respond to a jury summons. Even so, employees who leave work to serve or respond to a jury summons do have protected leave during that time.

However, employers must provide at least 3 hours to vote if the employee requests the time in writing at least 3 days previous to the time off. If the employee already has at least 3  hours of time off during the time the polls are open, then employers are not required to provide the requested time off.

Let SwipeClock Help

Businesses who have employees in West Virginia and other surrounding states such as Maryland or Pennsylvania will have to track different leave laws, minimum wage laws, and other employment laws.  

Additionally, these businesses have to also comply with Federal Overtime Laws, the Family Medical Leave Act and any other national or local laws that are enacted. SwipeClock provides a comprehensive array of workforce management and time tracking tools that can help businesses to more easily stay in compliance with local and national laws.

Records are effortlessly kept for years and accrual is automatically tracked and reported to employees according to the state and city laws. Additionally, with geo-timekeeping clocks, businesses can effortlessly track time worked in specific cities to ensure compliance.