Alert
Alert
09.19.14
This client alert was published as a bylined article in the February 2015 Edition of Employee Benefit Plan Review.
On September 10, 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 1522, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (“the Act”). The Act grants nearly all California employees the right to at least three days of paid sick leave per year and imposes new requirements on private employers, with enforcement set to begin July 1, 2015.
California is now the second state in the nation, after Connecticut, to require almost all public and private-sector employers to provide their employees with paid sick days. The Act follows the passage of paid sick leave ordinances in several cities across the country, including three in California: San Francisco, San Diego, and Long Beach, which are summarized below. The Act is expected to require provision of paid sick leave to about 6.5 million California workers, or 40% of California’s workforce who do not currently receive this benefit from their employers.
In addition to mandating paid sick leave, the Act requires private employers to comply with certain notice, posting, and record retention requirements. It forbids employers from requiring employees to find replacement workers before using paid sick leave, and from discriminating or retaliating against employees for using it. The Act also includes an enforcement procedure that can levy steep administrative penalties and civil damages on employers that do not comply.
Before the Act takes effect on July 1, 2015, employers with California employees should evaluate their current leave policies and employee handbooks and make revisions to ensure compliance with the new law, which is described below.
Download: New California Legislation Mandates Paid Sick Days for Employees.