The collapsing of the TSCA into the ESSTA provides some consistency for employers who have struggled to synthesize these competing statutory schemes.

On September 25, 2025, the New York City Council took yet another step in expanding requirements for employers and broadening employee rights under the New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA).

The latest ESSTA amendments seek to mandate the front-loading of an additional 32 hours of unpaid safe and sick leave for employees upon hire and each calendar year thereafter, while eliminating employer obligations under the NYC Temporary Schedule Change Act (TSCA). In exchange for eliminating the TSCA requirements, the bill seeks to expand the list of eligible safe and sick time uses for leave under the ESSTA, including those personal events previously covered by the TSCA. The collapsing of the TSCA into the ESSTA provides some consistency for employers who have struggled to synthesize these competing statutory schemes.

Further, the proposed law would codify certain paid prenatal leave obligations and references recently outlined in our previous Alert directly into the ESSTA.

The bill currently sits on the mayor’s desk for signature. If signed into law, the bill would take effect 120 days later. In anticipation of the bill’s signature, below is a high-level summary of the additional rights employees will gain under the amended ESSTA, as well as the new compliance obligations that employers in New York City should anticipate incorporating into employee handbooks and policies.

New ESSTA Sick and Safe Leave Use Eligibility

The bill would transfer two categories of permissible safe and sick leave uses currently available under the TSCA to the ESSTA and establish new categories of leave.

Public Disasters

The amended ESSTA would allow employees to use sick leave in the event of: (a) workplace closure due to a public disaster; (b) school or child care closure or restricted in-person operations due to a public disaster; and/or (c) compliance with public official directives to remain indoors or avoid traveling during a public disaster that prevents the employee from reporting to their workplace. ESSTA defines “public disaster” to include events such as a fire, explosion, terrorist attack, severe weather conditions and other public emergencies or disasters declared by the United States president, the governor of New York or the mayor of New York City.

Workplace Violence

The amended ESSTA also provides for potential employee use of safe leave for employees where the employee or the employee’s family member has been the victim of workplace violence for purposes of meeting with a legal or social service provider and taking other protective actions. “Workplace violence” is defined under the ESSTA as any act or threat of violence against an employee that occurs in a place of employment.

Caregivers

Under the amended ESSTA, employee caregivers will be eligible to use safe leave to care for minor children or care recipients. To qualify as a “caregiver,” an employee must provide direct and ongoing care to the minor child or care recipient. The amendments further define the term “care recipient” as a temporarily or permanently disabled person who (a) is a family member[1] of the caregiver or resides in the caregiver’s household and (b) relies on the caregiver for medical care or to meet the needs of daily living. This change does not expand rights but transfers the TSCA’s caregiver provision into the ESSTA for clarity and consistency.

Subsistence Benefits or Housing

Finally, the amended ESSTA provides for eligible use of safe leave to employees who initiate, attend or prepare for a legal proceeding or hearing in relation to subsistence benefits or housing to which the employee, the employee’s family member or the employee’s care recipient is a party, or to take actions required for application for, maintenance of or restoration of subsistence benefits or housing. This provision goes beyond the TSCA by adding application, maintenance or restoration actions (not just hearings), thereby expanding the prior entitlement while relocating it under the ESSTA.

New Requirement for Employers to Front-Load 32 Hours of Unpaid Safe and Sick Leave

In addition to incorporating the above safe and sick time uses, the bill also requires NYC employers to provide employees with a new unpaid safe and sick leave bank of at least 32 hours. This new 32-hour unpaid leave bank would be available to employees immediately upon hire and on the first day of each calendar year thereafter. In other words, the new unpaid sick and safe leave hours do not accrue and must be front-loaded for employees by NYC employers. This new unpaid leave entitlement is separate from and does not modify the accrual, carryover or front-loading rules that continue to govern the existing 40 or 56 hours of paid safe and sick leave requirements under the ESSTA.

The amended ESSTA would not require employers to carry over any of the minimum 32 hours of unpaid sick and safe leave into the next calendar year, but time will be immediately available since a new 32-hour entitlement would be front-loaded. Further, as with accrued safe and sick leave, employers would be able to set a reasonable minimum increment for use equal to four hours or less per day. The 32-hour unpaid leave bank would also be subject to the ESSTA’s current notice obligations, which require employers to inform employees of the amount of time available for use via pay stubs or another form of written documentation provided to employees each pay period. Because the new 32-hour unpaid leave bank is separate from the existing paid leave entitlement, employers will need to maintain and display two distinct leave balances—one for unpaid front-loaded hours and one for accrued paid hours—to satisfy the ESSTA’s notice and recordkeeping requirements.

Codification of Paid Prenatal Leave Requirements

The bill also seeks to incorporate the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s (DCWP) ESSTA rules concerning paid prenatal leave requirements. The DCWP recently amended the ESSTA rules to incorporate the New York State Paid Sick Leave Law’s paid prenatal leave requirements into the ESSTA by reference, which triggered affirmative steps for employer compliance. The bill’s formal incorporation of these amendments into the ESSTA’s text further highlights the importance of ensuring compliance with the same.

Beyond folding in the ESSTA rules compliance requirements, the bill adds that employers may set a reasonable minimum increment for use of paid prenatal leave in the amount of one hour or less per day. The amended law also makes clear that the existing ESSTA penalties provision will apply to paid prenatal leave compliance violations for New York City employers.

Elimination of Most Temporary Schedule Change Act Requirements

Under the current TSCA, employers must provide eligible employees with up to two temporary changes to their work schedules annually for “personal events.” Those personal events qualifying for temporary changes under the TSCA include: (a) the need for a caregiver to provide care to a minor child or care recipient; (b) an employee’s need to attend a legal proceeding or hearing for subsistence benefits to which the employee, a family member or the employee’s care recipient is a party; and (c) those circumstances qualifying for safe and sick time under the ESSTA. The TSCA also prohibits retaliation by employers against employees for requesting or using such temporary changes to their work schedules, which applies regardless of whether the employer ultimately grants or denies the employee’s request for a temporary change.

Employers would no longer be obligated to grant employees’ temporary schedule change requests under the TSCA, though employees would still be permitted to make such requests. This is because the personal events that have been covered by the TSCA would instead be included as eligible reasons for safe and/or sick leave, as outlined above. The bill does not remove the TSCA’s existing anti-retaliation protections. As such, employees would remain protected from employer retaliation in the event they make temporary schedule change requests.

Next Steps for Employers

As this bill’s approval is on the horizon, businesses employing workers in New York City should anticipate the upcoming need to review and update existing ESSTA policies to reflect the potential changes and new obligations. We will continue to monitor developments and provide additional information once it is made available.

For More Information

If you have any questions about this Alert, please contact Eve I. Klein, Katelynn Gray, Gregory Slotnick, Paige Carey, any of the attorneys in our Employment, Labor, Benefits and Immigration Practice Group or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.

Disclaimer: This Alert has been prepared and published for informational purposes only and is not offered, nor should be construed, as legal advice. For more information, please see the firm's full disclaimer.