By Bob Katzen

The House 157-0, Senate 40-0, approved a bill that would provide qualified workers with up to five days of paid leave for COVID-19-related emergencies including workers who are sick with the virus, under a quarantine order, recovering from receiving a vaccine or caring for a family member ill with the virus.

The measure is also designed to relieve employers from expensive unexpected unemployment system costs. Many businesses were shocked when they saw their first-quarter unemployment contribution bills and found the solvency assessment rate had jumped from 0.58 percent in 2020 to 9.23 percent in 2021, raising costs in many cases by hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Under the proposal, the state would shift all COVID-related unemployment claims from the solvency fund into a new COVID claims fund and the solvency fund would revert to its original function. Employers, who fund the state’s jobless aid system, will still be on the hook in the long term, and a COVID-related assessment on businesses will kick into effect for 2021 and 2022.

“In order for us to fully recover from the pandemic, all Massachusetts workers need access to emergency paid sick time if they are sick with COVID-19, quarantined or need to care for a sick family member,” said Deb Fastino, Executive Director of the Coalition for Social Justice. “Many essential frontline workers need paid sick time so they can recover from the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.”

“Massachusetts workers and businesses share the same goal of restoring jobs lost during the COVID pandemic and getting back to work,” said Steve Tolman, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. “By spreading this year’s solvency assessment over the next two decades using already authorized borrowing, the House took the necessary step at this time to enable that continued economic recovery. Moving forward, it is critical that we take a hard look at the way we fund our Unemployment Insurance System to ensure that costs are fairly spread out across businesses; that we build substantial reserves during good economic times in order to weather the bad without relying on costly borrowing; and that workers can continue to count on unemployment benefits as an economic lifeline to provide for their families and boost the Massachusetts economy.”

(A “Yes” vote is for the bill.)

Rep. Christine Barber Yes Rep. Mike Connolly Yes Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven Didn’t Vote Sen. Patricia Jehlen Yes