Assembly Bill 1949 (AB 1949) amends the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) to entitle eligible employees to take up to five (5) days of bereavement leave upon the death of a covered family member and to make it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to grant a request by an eligible employee to take such bereavement leave. AB 1949 takes effect on January 1, 2023.
AB 1949 applies to employers with five or more employees. Employees are eligible for bereavement leave if they have been employed for at least 30 days before the leave commences. Bereavement leave may be taken for the death of a family member, which means a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or parent-in-law. AB 1949 requires that the bereavement leave be completed within three (3) months of the date of death, and specifies that the bereavement leave need not be taken consecutively.
Employers with existing bereavement leave policies that provide employees less than five (5) days of paid bereavement leave, must continue to give employees the number of paid days employees are entitled to under the bereavement leave policies. The remainder of the five (5) days of bereavement leave may be unpaid, but employers must allow employees to use any paid vacation, personal leave, accrued and available sick leave, or compensatory time off that is otherwise available to the employee.
Employers with existing bereavement leave policies that provide employees less than five (5) days of unpaid bereavement leave must give employees five (5) days of unpaid bereavement leave and allow employees to use any paid vacation, personal leave, accrued and available sick leave, or compensatory time off that is otherwise available to the employee.
Employers that have no existing bereavement leave policies must give employees five (5) days of unpaid bereavement leave and allow employees to use any paid vacation, personal leave, accrued and available sick leave, or compensatory time off that is otherwise available to the employee.
Employers may require employees to provide documentation of the death of a family member within 30 days of the first day of the leave. Documentation includes, but is not limited to, a death certificate, a published obituary, or written verification of death, burial, or memorial services from a mortuary, funeral home, burial society, crematorium, religious institution, or governmental agency. AB 1949 obligates employers to maintain the confidentiality of any employee requesting bereavement, as well as the documentation the employee provides, except to internal personnel or legal counsel, as necessary, or as required by law.
AB 1949 makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, an employee’s right to take bereavement leave. AB 1949 also makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to hire or to discharge, demote, fine, suspend, expel, or discriminate against, an individual because of either of the following:
AB 1949 does not apply to an employee who is covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement if the agreement expressly provides for bereavement leave equivalent to that required under AB 1949.
AB 1949 also requires the Civil Rights Department (CRD) to expand the small employer family leaves mediation pilot program (Pilot Program) to include mediation for alleged violations of the new bereavement leave entitlement. The Pilot Program is only in effect until January 1, 2024, and as of that date is repealed.
(AB 1949 amends Sections 12945.21 and 19859.3 of, and adds Section 12945.7 to, the Government Code.)