On January 1, 2021, California Senate Bill 1383 (SB 1383), signed into law by Governor Gavin
Newsom on September 17, 2020, became effective, significantly
expanding the California Family Rights Act's (CFRA)
applicability and coverage.
Codified as Government Code section 12945.2, the CFRA provides
qualified employees with 12 weeks of unpaid leave and job
protection for qualified leave events, such as time to bond with a
new child, caring for qualified family members who are experiencing
a serious health condition, or time off to recover from one's
own serious health condition.
Previously, mirroring the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA),
the CFRA applied only to employers who employed 50 or more
employees within a 75-mile radius of the worksite. The new CFRA
diverges from the FMLA to greatly expand its coverage to all
employers employing at least 5 employees regardless of
employees' geographical location. This change in the law
dramatically expands the CFRA's applicability to essentially
all businesses in California and significantly sweeps up employers
previously exempt from both the CFRA and FMLA.
In addition to expanding CFRA's applicability to more small
business employers, the CFRA further diverges from the FMLA by
expanding the qualifying circumstances for which leave must be
provided. Previously, under the CFRA, an employer was required to
provide unpaid leave and job protections to an employee who
requested leave to tend to a spouse, domestic partner, parent,
minor child, or dependent adult child who was suffering from a
qualified serious health condition. SB 1383 expands the CFRA to now
also provide leave and associated protections to employees taking
leave to care for an adult child, a child of a domestic partner,
grandparent, grandchild, or sibling suffering from serious health
conditions.
Further expanding the scope of the CFRA, SB 1383 now provides
unpaid leave for "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 Armed Forces of
the United States, as specified in Section 3302.2 of the
Unemployment Insurance Code." CFRA now requires an employer to
provide an employee with unpaid leave for situations that do not
necessarily stem from a qualified serious health condition,
reflecting a major expansion of the CFRA's scope and an
additional layer of compliance required by employers.
While these are just some of the major changes, CFRA has been
expanded and changed in numerous other and more nuanced ways. The
New Year is always a good time for businesses to re-assess their
handbooks, practices, and general legal compliance. However, now
more than ever, due to SB 1383's numerous changes to the CFRA,
all businesses in California should consult with an employment
attorney to make sure they are in compliance with the CFRA so they
can avoid costly litigation and HR nightmares well into
2021.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.