Many employers feared a flurry of employee-friendly laws would emerge after California Gov. Brown’s election, but that hasn’t occurred so far. Here’s an overview of two employment laws that have come up in Sacramento, neither of which has yet been enacted.
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The bill would expand the circumstances under which an employee is entitled to leave under the California Family Rights Act. It would: 1) eliminate the age and dependency elements from the definition of “child,” permitting an employee to take protected leave to care for his or her independent adult child suffering from a serious health condition; 2) expand the definition of “parent” to include an employee’s parent-in-law; and 3) permit an employee to take leave to care for a seriously ill grandparent, sibling, grandchild, or domestic partner.
After a hearing in May, the bill died in the Appropriations Committee and is unlikely to come up again this year.
Mandatory Paid Sick Leave (A.B. 400)
This bill would require employers to provide employees who work in California for seven or more days in a calendar year with paid sick leave, accrued at a rate of at least one hour for every 30 hours worked. Employees could use accrued sick leave, beginning on the 90th calendar day of employment, for diagnosis, care, or treatment of health conditions of the employee or a family member, or for leave related to domestic violence or sexual assault.
Like A.B. 59, the bill languished in the Appropriations Committee and didn’t pass the Assembly by the necessary deadline.
Stay tuned for updates on these and other bills of interest to California employers.