California’s Expanded Family and Medical Leave Now Covers Parents-in-Law

Last year California expanded unpaid family and medical leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) to cover employers with five or more employees (instead of the prior 50 or more or payroll).

Under existing law, covered employers must grant an eligible employee’s request to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid protected time off during any 12-month period for “family care and medical leave” for needed care of a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse or domestic partner with a serious health condition.

“Parent” was defined as a biological, foster or adoptive parent, a stepparent, a legal guardian, or other person who stood “in loco parentis” (i.e., acting in the place of a parent) to the employee as a child.

Effective January 1, 2022, the new law (Assembly Bill 1033) expands the definition of “parent” to include leave to care for a “parent-in-law.”

Take-Aways:
Covered employers should promptly update their employee handbooks and CFRA absence request forms. They should also educate and train their supervisors on this expanded definition.

For further information, please contact Tim Bowles, Cindy Bamforth or Helena Kobrin.

See also:

• Good Workplace is Boss – Our Template Handbook & Forms for 2021 (May 28, 2021)
• What’s New in 2021: Workplace Time Outs – California’s Expanded Family and Medical Leave Significantly Impacts Small Business (November 12, 2020)
• For the Records – Sound Management Practices for Personnel Documentation(August 14, 2020)

Cindy Bamforth
October 19, 2021