California Employees May Take Job-Protected Leave to Care for a Designated Non-Relative

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Patricia Tsipras

October 4, 2022

Beginning January 1, 2023, California employees can take up to 12 weeks of family leave to care for individuals who are not legal relatives.  See AB 1041.  The new law expands California’s protections under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014.

Currently, under the CFRA, eligible California employees may take job-protected leave to care for their child, parent, parent-in-law, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, or registered domestic partner.  The new law expands the CFRA’s protections to include a “designated person.”  A “designated person” is defined as “any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.”  An employee may identify a “designated person” at the time they request leave.  Employers may limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period.

The new law also expands the protections of California’s Paid Sick Leave Law, adding a “designated person” to the list of family members for whom an employee may take time off to care.  For the purposes of paid sick leave, a “designated person” is defined as “a person identified by the employee at the time the employee requests paid sick days.”  As under CFRA, employers are permitted to limit an employee to one “designated person” per 12-month period.

California employers should update their CFRA and Paid Sick Leave policies to comply with the new law.  We can help.

*Special thanks to our paralegal, Ava Petrellese, for her contributions to this article.