On Thursday, September 17, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1383 (SB 1383), which extends job-protected family leave protections to millions of California small business workers. The bill requires businesses with 5 or more employees to offer 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid family leave by January 1, 2021. Find out more about how SB 1383 affects California businesses and workers below.

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Brief History of SB 1383

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Currently, businesses with 20 or more employees are required to provide job-protected 12-week parental leave, and larger businesses with 50 or more employees are required to provide job-protected leave to care for an ill family member. Access to job-protected leave is crucial for workers who seek to take advantage of California’s Paid Family Leave program and return to their jobs after taking time off. According to the Office of Governor Newsom, “since California’s Paid Family Leave Program was enacted more than 15 years ago, lack of job protection under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) has prevented millions of workers from accessing their Paid Family Leave Program benefits due to the size of their employer.”

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While all California workers pay into the state’s family leave program automatically, millions of employees have not taken advantage of the program’s benefits because of the lack of job-protection provisions for small business workers. SB 1383 expands state-mandated job-protected leave provisions to include employees of small businesses.

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Employer Requirements under SB 1383

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Starting in January, businesses with 5 or more employees will be required to grant requests by employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid protected leave during any 12-month period for any of the following reasons:

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• 1. to bond with a new child of the employee
• 2. to care for themselves or a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner, as specified
• 3. due to a qualifying exigency related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty of an employee’s spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent in the Armed Forces of the United States.

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Although the bill does not require employers to offer paid leave, it requires that employers hold employees’ jobs until they return to work and maintain the employee’s employer-paid health benefits. The bill also requires small businesses to grant spouses who work for the same employer 12 weeks of family leave each. As the leave does not constitute a break in service, employers are required to maintain employees’ seniority status when they return to work for purposes of layoffs, promotions, and other seniority-related benefits.

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Workers who qualify for job-protected unpaid leave may apply for California’s Paid Family Leave Program, which provides employees with eight weeks of partial pay that amounts to between 60-70% of their weekly salary.

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Resources for California Employers

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Find the full text of Senate Bill 1383 here.

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Find an overview of California’s Paid Family Leave Program here.

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If you have questions regarding the application of SB 1383 to your business, please contact one of the following attorneys in The Maloney Firm’s Employment Law Department: Patrick Maloney, Lisa Von Eschen, Samantha Botros, or Nicholas Grether.

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