Changes to CA employee leave provisions

CA Governor Gavin Newsome was busy signing bills September 29, and some of those bills affect employee leave. The bills include AB 1949, which provides bereavement leave, AB 1041, which extended family members for CFRA and paid sick leave, and AB 152, which extended the COVID supplemental paid leave to the end of the year.

Here is a quick rundown of the changes:

• As of January 1, 2023, employees may take CFRA leave to care for a "designated person," who is any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. Employees may identify a designated person at the time leave is requested. Employers may limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period.
• As of January 1, 2023, employees may take paid sick leave to care for a person identified by the employee at the time the employee requests paid sick days. No mention that this person needs to be related by blood or equivalent to a family relationship. Like the CFRA, however, employers may limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period for paid sick days.
• As of January 1, 2023, employers with five or more employees must give employees who have worked at least 30 days are up to five days of unpaid bereavement leave. Employees may take the bereavement leave for the death of a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or parent-in-law.
• The COVID-19 supplemental paid leave was extended to December 31, 2022. It does not add to the amount of leave employees get. Effective 2/19/22 and retroactive to 1/1/22, employers with more than 25 employees are to provide employees with COVID-19 supplemental paid leave.

Time to dust off the related policies and practices involving employee leave in California — what little dust might have formed. January is not too far away.