New Family Leave Expansion Effective January 1

California Governor Gavin Newsom just expanded the California Family Rights Act to include employers with five employees or more. Senate Bill 1383, signed on September 17, 2020, greatly expands the state’s existing family and medical leave entitlements and goes into effect on January 1, 2021

SB 1383 also expands eligible reasons for protected leave and adds additional family members whom employees may take leave to care for under the law.

Employees will still need to meet eligibility requirements, including 12 months of service and 1,250 hours worked for the employer in the previous 12-month period, to qualify for family and medical leave. Employees needing to request this time off.

Expanded Eligibility to Small Employers

Under current law, only employers with 50 (within 75 mile radius) or more employees were required to provide protected leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA). Additionally, only employers with more than 20 employees (within 75 mile radius) were required to provide “baby bonding” leave under the New Parent Leave Act (NPLA)

SB 1383 replaces CFRA and NPLA and expands the requirement to include employers with five or more employees to provide eligible employees with up to 12 workweeks of unpaid job-protected leave during any 12-month period for specific covered reasons. The employer must also maintain and pay for the employee’s coverage under a group health plan for the duration of the leave at the level of coverage

Expanded Covered Family Members and Reasons for Leave

SB 1383 also expands the family members who are covered as well as the potential reasons an eligible employee may take leave. Under SB 1383, eligible employees may take leave to bond with a new child or to care for themselves or a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner.

Under the existing CFRA statute, leave for purposes of caring for a family member was available only if the family member was the employee’s child, a parent, spouse, or domestic partner.

FMLA/CFRA Stacking Problem for Employers over 50 Employees

SB 1383 also creates a unique challenge for employers with 50 or more employees that would be  covered under both the CFRA and the FMLA. Typically, leave under CFRA and FMLA runs concurrently, meaning an employee is only eligible for a total of 12 weeks of unpaid leave under both laws.

Now, because of the expanded SB 1383, the definition of “family member” under the CFRA is no longer in sync with the FMLA definition. This creates a potential problem. An employee who is eligible for 12 weeks of leave under the CFRA may remain eligible for an additional 12 weeks under the FMLA.

Additional Changes

Requires an employer that employs both parents of a child to grant up to 12 weeks of leave to each employee, even simultaneously. Under current law, the employer only had to grant both employees a combined total of 12 weeks of leave.

The new law also requires employers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave during any 12-month period due to 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 Armed Forces of the United States.

Lastly, SB 1383 does not permit an employer to refuse reinstatement of “key employees” as was previously allowed by the CFRA under qualifying circumstances.

Infinium HR is keeping up to date on these new legislative changes and will be prepared to answer your questions as well as guide you through any situations that may fall under this new legislation. Please contact us at info@infiniumhr.com if you have any questions in the meantime.