California requires small businesses to provide 12 weeks leave to new parents

California’s New Parent Leave Act (NPLA) extends parental leave under the CFRA (California Family Rights Act) to employees of small employers. Previously, under the FMLA (The Family and Medical Leave Act) and CFRA, only employers with 50 or more employees were required to provide employees with protected unpaid leave to bond with a new child. Prior to the California New Parent Leave Act, employers with less than 50 employees were never obligated to provide such leave. Small employers are employers with 20-49 employees within a 75 mile radius. They are required to give new parents up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave to bond with a new child.

To be eligible for the unpaid parental leave, the employee must have worked at least 1,250 hours within the past year and must take leave within a year of the child being born, adopted, or placed in foster care. If both parents work for the same employer, they are collectively limited to 12 weeks between the both of them. It is up to the employer's discretion whether or not the employer will allow both parents to take their leave at the same time.

The employer must also provide health care coverage under a group health plan for any employee who takes this leave. Moreover, the health care coverage provided must be the same as the coverage provided to employees who are actively working. The employer can only recover the premium that the employer paid if the employee fails to return when his or her leave ends and the employee's failure to return is for a reason other than the continuation, recurrence, or onset of a serious health condition or any circumstance beyond the employee's control.

In addition, the employer must guarantee the employee the same or similar job when the employee returns from his or her new parent leave. This guarantee must be in writing and prior to the employee's leave. Failure to provide this job upon the employee's return basically means the employer has denied the employee of his or her new parent leave.

Although the law provides for an unpaid protected leave, employees may use accrued vacation pay, paid sick time, or any other accrued paid time off negotiated with the employer.

The New Parent Leave Act is only available for those employees not subject to both FMLA and CFRA. Employees who are not eligible for leave under the Parent Leave Act may be eligible for leave under other laws like the FMLA and CFRA. In addition, employers should be familiar with leave under FMLA, CFRA, and the Parent Leave Act because an employer could have employees covered by all three in situations where the employer maintains both a corporate headquarter and satellite offices.

Finally, it is important to note that the benefits under the California’s New Parent Leave Act for Small Employers is in addition to the pregnancy disability leave already available under the Government Code section 12945.

California employers need highly trained human resources personnel to handle the ever expanding matrix of employee rights. Gone are the days of simply delegating the task to an assistant. Whether updating employee handbooks to drafting a written guarantees of reinstatement or managing the inevitable litigation, the attorneys at Bailey Law are ready to help.