California enacted a number of employment-related laws in late 2020. This newsletter provides a brief summary of a few major new laws and their amendments, including (1) California Family Rights Act, (2) Paid Family Leave, (3) Diversity on Corporate Boards, and (4) COVID-19-Related Laws.
California Family Rights Act
SB-1383 expanded the California Family Rights Act (“CFRA”). Under SB-1383, it is unlawful for any employer with five or more employees to refuse to provide covered employees up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during any 12-month period to bond with a new child or to care for their own serious health condition or that of the employee’s child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner. An eligible employee must have worked at least 1,250 hours for the employer during the previous 12-month period. More details can be found at: SB-1383 Link.
Paid Family Leave
AB-2399 expanded California’s Paid Family Leave program, which permits taking time off to participate in a qualifying exigency related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty of an individual’s spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent in the U.S. Armed Forces. More details can be found at: AB-2399.
Diversity on Corporate Boards
AB-979 requires publicly held domestic or foreign corporations with principal executive offices in California to have at least one director from an underrepresented community by the end of 2021, and additional directors from an underrepresented community by the end of 2022, depending on the total number of directors. More details can be found at: AB-979.
COVID-19-Related Laws
AB-685 requires employers to:
provide written notification to all employees at an exposed worksite of potential exposure to COVID-19 within one business day of notice of potential exposure, and
notify local public health agencies within 48 hours of becoming aware of an “outbreak” (defined as three or more confirmed cases of COVID-19 within a two-week period among employees who live in different households).
More details can be found at: AB-685.