On Thursday, September 17th, 2020, Governor Newsom signed legislation that will greatly expand the California Family Rights Act in a manner that will impact both small and large California employers. The CFRA requires covered employers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during each 12-month period for purposes of family and medical leave. Senate Bill 1383 expands CFRA to apply to employers with five or more employees and expands the scope of “family members” for whom employees can take leave to include many additional categories.
Effective January 1, 2021, the California Family Rights (CFRA) is amended to apply to employers with five or more employees; previously the law only applied to companies with 50 or more workers. Additionally, the New Parent Leave Act, which applied to employers with 20-49 employees, is to be repealed as of that date.
Other amendments to the CFRA include:
- Elimination of the qualifying requirement that an employee must be employed at a worksite with a certain number of employees within 75 miles;
- Allowing employees to take leave because of a qualifying exigency related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty of an employee’s spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent in the US Armed Forces;
- Allowing employees to take leave to care for the following family members with a serious health condition:
- A child, regardless of age or dependency status, including the child of a domestic partner;
- A grandparent (i.e., a parent of the employee’s parent);
- A grandchild (i.e., a child of the employee’s child);
- A sibling (i.e., a person related to another person by blood, adoption, or affinity through a common legal or biological parent); and
- A domestic partner, as defined in +Cal Fam Code § 297 (previously was only covered in the regulations);
- Allows spouses employed by a single employer to each take 12 weeks of leave for the birth or placement of the child; and
- Removing an employer’s ability to deny reinstatement to a key employee
New Law Creates A “Stacking” Problem with The Federal FMLA
SB 1383 also creates a unique dilemma for employers that have 50 or more employees and are therefore covered under both the CFRA and the FMLA. Generally, leave under CFRA and FMLA runs concurrently, meaning an employee is generally only eligible for a total of 12 weeks of unpaid leave under both laws. However, because SB 1383 now expands the definition of “family member” under the CFRA in a manner inconsistent with the definition under the federal FMLA, the two laws are no longer in sync. As such, situations may arise in which an employee is eligible for 12 weeks of leave under the CFRA as well as an additional 12 weeks under the FMLA.
For example, suppose an employee working for an employer with 50 or more employees needs to take family leave to care for a sister with a serious health condition. Under SB 1383, the employee would be eligible to take up to 12 weeks of leave in-order-to do so. However, because “siblings” are not covered under the federal FMLA, that same employee would potentially still be eligible to take 12 weeks of leave under the FMLA for a child, parent, or spouse. Under this example, an employer could be faced with providing up to 24 weeks of leave to such an employee.
Mediation Pilot Program
As SB 1383 was making its way through the legislative process, the employer community (and particularly small businesses) expressed concern about the increased litigation risk that will now be faced by employers with five or more employees if they make a mistake in implementing or administering the new requirements of the CFRA that now apply to them. In an attempt to address this concern, a companion measure (AB 1867) was amended to include a “small employer family leave mediation pilot program.”
Effective January 1, 2021, a family leave mediation pilot program for employers with between five and 19 employees will be created. Under the pilot program, a covered employer or an employee may, within 30 days of receiving or obtaining a right-to-sue notice alleging a California Family Rights Act violation, request all parties to participate in the Department of Fair Employment and Housing’s dispute resolution division. If the employer or employee requests mediation, the employee cannot pursue a civil action in court until the mediation is complete. The right-to-sue notice must include or be accompanied by a written statement describing the parties’ right to participate in the mediation pilot program, including information on the time frame to request mediation.
The pilot program has an automatic repeal date of January 1, 2024.
What California Employers Need to Do Now
California employers must immediately begin to prepare for this new law by either amending or adding policies to their employee handbook. Due to the expanded definition of “family member” in the new law, even employers that were already covered by the CFRA will need to update their policies, procedures and forms to be compliant with the new provisions of the law. Employers should develop or revise policies and procedures to begin implementing and administering these new leave requirements.
Guardian HR has created updated policies and materials surrounding these changes and made them available for all clients for download in our Forms Library. Please go to http://www.guardian-hr.com, log into the Client Portal with your credentials and access the Forms Library > FMLA > California > CFRA California Family Rights Act 2021
Guardian HR will also continue to inform you of any updates on this new law, as more information becomes available in the coming weeks & months.
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