AB 1041 amends the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, also known as the Paid Sick Leave Law, to permit eligible employees of covered employers to take leave to care for individuals who are not family members.
Leave Under CFRA to Care for a Designated Person
The CFRA makes it an unlawful employment practice for a private employer with 5 or more employees or any public employer to refuse to grant a request from an employee who meets specified requirements to take up to a total of 12 workweeks in any 12-month period for family care and medical leave. One of the qualifying reasons for an employee to take CFRA leave is for the employee to care for certain family members, including a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner, who have a serious health condition.
AB 1041 expands the class of people for whom an employee may take leave to care to now also include a “designated person.” A designated person means any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. The designated person may be identified by the employee at the time the employee requests the leave. An employer may limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period.
Paid Sick Leave to Care for a Designated Person
California’s Paid Sick Leave Law sets a statutory minimum amount of sick leave for most employees in California. Employees may use paid sick time for preventive care or the diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health condition of an employee or an employee’s family member, which under current law means an employee’s child, parent, spouse, registered domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, and sibling.
AB 1041 expands the definition of the term “family member” to include a designated person, which means a person identified by the employee at the time the employee requests paid sick days. An employer may limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period for paid sick days.
(AB 1041 amends Section 12945.2 of the Government Code, and amends Section 245.5 of the Labor Code.)