Assembly Bill 1041 (AB 1041) expands leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 to permit eligible employees of covered employers to take leave to care for individuals who are not family members. AB 1041 takes effect on January 1, 2023.
Leave Under CFRA to Care for Designated Person
The CFRA makes it an unlawful employment practice for a California employer with five (5) or more employees 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 group of people for whom an employee may take leave to care to 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 for CFRA leave.
Leave Under the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 to Care for Designated Person
The Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, generally entitles an employee who works in California for the same employer for 30 or more days within a year to a certain amount of paid sick days. Employees may use the paid sick days for preventive care or the diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health condition of an employee or an employee’s family member, which 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.)