Careful readers of the new Department of Labor poster explaining employee rights under the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act noticed what may be an error, or at least very confusing language. The third bullet point suggests that an employee can receive up to $12,000 for paid sick leave and emergency FMLA for 10 weeks of leave. What the DOL was probably trying to point out is that 12 weeks of pay at 2/3 is available when the 10 weeks of pay under the emergency FMLA is combined with the 2 weeks of paid leave available under the sick leave provisions.
If the first 10 days of the emergency FMLA is taken concurrently with paid sick leave, then an employee can received $12,000, but then the total time taken would be 12 weeks, not 10.
To be clear, an employee is not eligible for more than 80 hours of paid sick leave.
Many are hoping the DOL will release an updated poster to remedy the confusion. For a comprehensive summary of the new law, click here.