§ 7-204 Minimum Increments and Fixed Intervals for the Use of Safe/Sick Time and Paid Prenatal Leave.
RCNY § 7-204
(a)Unless otherwise in conflict with state or federal law or regulations, an employee may decide how much safe/sick time or paid prenatal leave to use, provided however, that an employer may adopt a written policy, as set forth in 6 RCNY § 7-211, setting a minimum increment for the use of safe/sick time not to exceed four hours per day, or one hour per day for the use of paid prenatal leave as provided in labor law section 196-b(4-a), provided such minimum increment is reasonable under the circumstances. Example 1: An employer has a written policy setting a minimum increment of four hours per day for use of safe/sick time. The employee has not yet accrued four hours of time, but is entitled to use the time he or she has already accrued. Under these circumstances, it would not be "reasonable under the circumstances" for the employer to require the employee to use a minimum of four hours of safe/sick time as the minimum increment. Example 2: An employee is scheduled to work from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Mondays. She schedules a doctor's appointment for 9:00 a.m. on a Monday and notifies her employer of her intent to use sick time and return to work the same day. The employer's written sick time policies require a four-hour minimum increment of sick time used per day. If she does not go to work before her appointment, she should appear for work by 12:00 p.m.
(b)An employer may set fixed periods of 30 minutes or any smaller amount of time for the use of accrued safe/sick time beyond the minimum increment described in subdivision (a) of this section and may require fixed start times for such intervals. Example: The employee in Example 2 of subdivision (a) of this section arrives to work at 12:17 p.m. Under her employer's written sick time policies, employees must use sick time in half-hour intervals that start on the hour or half-hour. The employer can require the employee to use four-and-a-half hours of her accrued sick time and require her to begin work at 12:30 p.m. Similarly, if the employee wanted to leave work at 8:40 a.m. to go to her 9:00 a.m. doctor's appointment, the employer could require the employee to stop work at 8:30 a.m. (Amended City Record 2/3/2016, eff. 3/4/2016; amended City Record 8/21/2018, eff. 9/20/2018; amended City Record 9/15/2023, eff. 10/15/2023; amended City Record 6/2/2025, eff. 7/2/2025)
