The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, enacted in response to the coronavirus crisis, gives individual employees 80 hours of federal sick leave. However, employers can exempt certain employees from the federal leave relief. Ohio's Governor has given the state agency directors the authority to apply the federal sick leave at their discretion. As a result, a few agencies have applied the benefit to their agency's employees, whereas several others have not or have remained silent on this issue.
As a result of this discretionary practice in which some brothers and sisters are seeing relief and others are not, it's time for OCSEA union members to rally together in a unified voice. Petition Ohio Governor Mike DeWine today and ask that ALL Ohio state employees be eligible for the 80-hours federal leave before exhausting their own leaves.