The California Civil Rights Department enforces state civil rights laws with respect to housing and employment. In 2020, Assembly Bill 1867 required the Department to create a small employer family leave mediation pilot program for the resolution of alleged violations of the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and bereavement leave protections. Pursuant to this pilot program, an employee cannot sue an employer with between five and 19 employees for a violation of the CFRA or bereavement leave protections until the mediation is complete or the Department deems the mediation unsuccessful. The mediation requirement applies only to CFRA or bereavement claims, even if the employee’s claim includes other alleged violations. Existing law repeals the pilot program on January 1, 2025.
Existing law also requires employers with five or more employees to provide up to five days of leave for reproductive loss events to eligible employees. A reproductive loss event means “the day or, for a multiple-day event, the final day of a failed adoption, failed surrogacy, miscarriage, stillbirth, or an unsuccessful assisted reproduction” (i.e., an unsuccessful round of intrauterine insemination or of an assisted reproductive technology procedure).
Assembly Bill 2011 (AB 2011) extends the mediation program indefinitely and expands the program to include resolution of alleged violations of reproductive loss leave requirements.
(AB 2011 amends section 12945.21 of the Government Code.)