New York Attorney General Letitia James (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over U.S. Labor Department regulations implementing the coronavirus relief package, saying it unlawfully narrowed the availability of paid sick leave and emergency family leave benefits.

James filed the federal suit on Tuesday as New York continues to remain in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic, which state figures show has infected nearly a quarter million people statewide.

The lawsuit is linked to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, a federal aid package that includes provisions for paid sick leave and emergency family leave. 

The suit argues that the federal Department of Labor regulations implementing those benefits conflict with the goals of the aid package. In particular, the regulations codify broad exclusions for a worker's eligibility and create new restrictions on workers that do not appear in the federal legislation, according to the lawsuit.

Up to 61 million workers could be eligible for those benefits under the legislation, according to James' office.

"The Trump Administration's rule makes it harder for New Yorkers and Americans throughout the country to claim these paid benefits, which unnecessarily puts more workers at risk of exposure to COVID-19," James said in a statement. "I will fight to prevent that from happening."

The federal department and Eugene Scalia, U.S. secretary of labor, are listed as defendants in the lawsuit.

Scalia, in a recent statement on the legislation, said the bill provides "unprecedented paid leave benefits to American workers affected by the virus, while ensuring that businesses are reimbursed dollar-for-dollar."

But the litigation argues the regulations ultimately undermine Congress' "public health and economic security goals." 

According to the lawsuit, the regulations limit a worker's eligibility for paid sick leave and emergency family leave to situations where the company decides that they have work for the employee. But the suit argues that nothing in the text of the legislation limits a worker's entitlement to those circumstances.

The suit also argues the rules put restrictions on when workers can take their leave intermittently, as in separate periods of time. 

"Nothing in the [legislation] authorizes the Department to grant employers the ability to deny paid leave to an employee who is otherwise entitled solely because the employer prefers that the leave be taken in one continuous period," according to the lawsuit.

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