California Expands CFRA Eligibility and Protections

If you are not yet familiar with CFRA, you are about to be. The California Family Rights Act (also known as CFRA), is similar to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which is a federal law granting employees unpaid leave due to illness or to care for immediate family members who are seriously ill or meet other criteria. The CFRA goes beyond FMLA, offering more time and protections to a broader range of employees and for more reasons. The CFRA was signed into effect in 2020, but recently, its terms have been amended to expand eligibility and coverage. The new changes will positively impact a large number of employees in California, so if you work in California, keep on reading to find out how these changes could affect you. 

Changes to the CFRA 

• More employees qualify for coverage. The original version of the bill covered private employers with at least 50 employees. Additionally, the employees must have been within 75 miles of each other. This meant that most remote workers and employees who worked at small job sites were excluded. The new changes reduce the number of required employees to just five for private employers, meaning that almost all employees of private employers in the state will be covered. Additionally, the amendments have removed the requirement that employees be within 75 miles of each other, making remote workers eligible for coverage. This is highly relevant, as many employees have switched to remote working models due to the pandemic, and may no longer be near their employer physically. All public employees are still covered, regardless of the size of their employer. 
• More leave time. The new changes have increased the time available to employees for leave. Employees now qualify for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for qualifying reasons.
• More qualifying reasons for leave. Originally, the CFRA only allowed unpaid time off to care for sick family members, however, the list of reasons for qualifying for leave has now been expanded to include several other grounds, including the birth of a child, placement of a child in foster care, caring for a family member (including a registered domestic partner or parent-in-law) with a serious illness or health condition, a serious health condition affecting the employee, and military exigency of the employee or a family member or registered domestic partner. 
• You can care for a child of any age. Under the original Act, employees could only qualify for leave to care for their child if their child was under the age of 18, however, now they can qualify for leave regardless of the age of their child. 
• Care for a “designated person.” To move away from rigid and limiting interpretations of the nuclear family, an additional bill has been passed this year that would allow CFRA coverage for an employee to care for a “designated person” who does not have to be blood-related and rather can have a relationship to the employee that is equivalent to a familial one. 

Contact a California Employment Lawyer Today 

If you need assistance taking the leave that you are legally entitled to, contact a California employment lawyer today to make sure your rights are protected.