History – In 2002, legislation was enacted to extend disability compensation to cover persons who take time off from work to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, parent, or registered domestic partner, or to bond with a new child. Senate Bill 1661 established Paid Family Leave (PFL) to be administered by the California State Disability Insurance (SDI) program. For workers in California who are covered by SDI, Paid Family Leave provides up to six weeks of benefits. The PFL program is administered by the Employment Development Department’s (EDD) Disability Insurance Branch. Click here to view the California Paid Family leave 10-Year Anniversary Report which includes information about PFL, statistics, commonly asked questions and experiences of those individuals who have used PFL.
Paid Family Leave Law is expanded effective July 1, 2014 – During the 2013 legislative session, Senate Bill 770 was signed, expanding PFL coverage protections. California workers may now be eligible to receive PFL benefits when taking time off from work to care for a seriously ill parent-in-law, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling. Claimants filing a PFL claim to care for a newly eligible family member should select the “OTHER” field and enter the relationship using one of the following: parent-in-law, grandparent, grandchild or sibling.
Complying with the Law – A compliance audit should be administered to identify areas of noncompliance.
- Review policies, employee handbooks and leave procedures;
- Train managers on the new expanded leave protections;
- Purchase updated Paid Family Leave pamphlets. These must be distributed to employees at the time of hire and to employees who request leave to care for a seriously ill family member or to bond with a new child; and
- Review your California All-On-One state/federal labor law poster. Updates to Notices A and/or B are likely to be released by the state soon. Recent mandatory changes include an increase to the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour effective July 1, 2014 and the addition of a protected class of military and veteran status which was added to the Discrimination and Harassment posting. The Cal/OSHA posting was also recently updated to reflect the Globally Harmonized Communication Standard (Safety Data Sheets/T8 CCR Section 5194).
Compliance Poster Company’s HR Research and Compliance Team will post updates on compliance products as they occur. For questions about the PFL program give us a call at 800.817.7678.