City of Los Angeles – Emergency COVID-19 Ordinances

Posted in News

On March 27, 2020, the Los Angeles City Council approved the following emergency COVID-19 ordinances.

1) COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (“SPSL”)(Article 5-72HH)
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2020/20-0147-s39_ord_draft_03-27-20.pdf

ApplicableEmployers are obligated to provide 80 hours of SPSL to applicable employees.
The ordinance expires on December 31, 2020 unless the City Council takes action to extend the ordinance.

  •  Applicable employers
    • The new mandate COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave is applicable to employer that have 500 or more employees nationally were excluded from the recently passed Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).
    • The ordinance is exempted to:
      An employer of an employee who is either a first responder or a health care provider as defined in Section 12945.2 of the California Government Code.
  • Applicable employees
    • An employee is entitled to SPSL under new article if the individual has been employed with the same employer from February 3, 2020, through March 4, 2020, and performs any work within the boundaries of the City of Los Angeles.
    • The article applies differently to full-time vs. part-time employees that;
      • Full-time employee (who works at least 40 hours per week): employee shall receive 80 hours of SPSL.
      • Part-time employee (who works less than 40 hours per week): employee shall receive SPSL in an amount no greater than the employee’s average two-week pay over the period of February 3, 2020 thru March 4, 2020.
    • SPSL cannot exceed $511 per day and $5,110 in aggregate total.

2) Tenant Protections Ordinance (Motion 72N)
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2020/20-0147-s19_ord_draft_03-27-20.pdf

This ordinance passed with amendments, and temporarily prohibits residential and commercial evictions for failure to pay rent for reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tenants will have up to 12 months following the expiration of the local emergency to repay any back rent due. On March 30, 2020, the City Council extended the repayment period from 6 to 12 months.

Any commercial tenant falls within these three categories does not receive the protections provided by the City Ordinance.
(1) a multi-national company, (2) a publicly traded company, and (3) a company that employs more than 500 employees.

Also, the City Council also passed Grocery, Drug Retail, and Food Delivery Worker Protection Ordinance (Article 3-7MM) to protect grocery store employees and delivery drivers. These workers can reschedule their work schedule related to certain COVID-19 reasons. It also requires that extra work hour must be offered to the current worker first before hiring new workers.

Worker Retention Ordinance (Article 4-72J-B) and Right-of-Recall Ordinance (Article 4-72J-A) were introduced, they did not pass. They will be considered at a future meeting.

3) Rent Increase

City of Los Angeles Public Order of March 30, 2020 Freezing Rent Increases for Residential Units Subject to the City’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance.

On March 30, 2020, Mayor Garcetti issued a Public Order prohibiting property owners from increasing rents on occupied rental units that are subject to the Los Angeles Rent Stabilization Ordinance (“RSO”) beginning on the date of the Public Order, and extending through 60 days after the expiration of the local emergency period.