Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Three Questions That Could Impact Your Tribal Casino

When the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was signed in March 2020, tribal casino operators faced immediate questions about which provisions applied to them and what actions were required. This article, by Tyler Moore, was written in the first weeks after enactment to give tribal gaming and HR leaders a practical framework for the three questions that needed answers first.

The first question was coverage: which employees are covered under FFCRA, and how does tribal sovereignty interact with the Act's employer mandate provisions? Tribal governments have a distinct legal relationship with federal employment law, and the FFCRA's application to tribal employers was not immediately clear from the legislation's text. The article walks through the applicable guidance available at the time and what tribal employers needed to assume in the absence of definitive regulatory clarification.

The second question was the paid leave provision, specifically what paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave obligations the Act created, and how those obligations interacted with existing tribal casino HR policies. The third question was the small employer exemption, which carved out employers with fewer than 50 employees under certain conditions, a provision relevant to tribal enterprises with multiple subsidiary operations that needed to determine how to count employees across entities.

Written under significant time pressure as the Act moved through implementation, this piece reflects the kind of rapid-response policy translation that tribal HR leaders required in spring 2020. The questions it raises and the framework it provides for thinking through tribal employer FFCRA compliance remain a useful record of how the legislative landscape looked at enactment.