Invoice to Increase Household Depart and Paid Sick Depart Strikes Ahead After Meeting Vote

A bill that extends the definition of “family member” was passed by the California State Assembly last week with 53 to 16 votes.

According to AB 1041, the draft law would extend the right to benefits under the paid family leave program to people who take time off to care for a seriously ill person who is related by blood or whose close relationship with the employee corresponds to a family relationship. The bill would change the definitions of “family leave” and “family member” accordingly.

Congregation woman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and draftsman emphasized that the majority of families today are deviating from the nuclear family model of married couples and biological children, now including those who are not biologically or legally related. Census data were given as 18.4%. Follow the traditional family structure.

“California family vacation laws continue to reflect the outdated traditional family model and only allow employees to take time off to care for narrowly defined family members,” said Wicks. “This political gap has a disproportionate effect on the LGBYQI community. California has the fourth largest LGBTQI population in the United States, and many members of this community have no relationship with their biological relatives. Therefore, they are less likely to receive biological support and rely on their chosen family instead. “

She recalled California in modernizing her language – how Oregon, Connecticut, New Jersey, Colorado, and 8 other places have similar laws on their books, including Los Angeles.

“It is time for California to join these other jurisdictions and ensure residents have the right to care for their loved ones regardless of their blood or legal relationship,” Wicks said.

Congregation woman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a co-author of the bill, said California is filled with many different multigenerational families in which this panel has made efforts to ensure that grandparents and other biological relatives who care for individuals can take this vacation.

“It is not always the biological family that takes care of children when they are sick or in need,” said Bauer-Kahan. “Personally, my parents left their home state to become part of Silicon Valley. They had no family around so it was my Diane, not really my grandmother, but the grandmother in my life. When my mother was not available, it was my Diane who took care of me. I would have been their designated person and we all know someone like this, be they LGBTQ or people far from the homes they grew up in and they deserve the same rights as everyone else. “

Bauer-Kahan also noted that the bill’s author, Wicks, was pondering the impact this would have on the business, saying the scope was narrow and people needed to be identified so that it was easy for the business to do is to pursue and avoid litigation.

MPs Chris Ward (D-San Diego) highlighted the bill that represents California values.

“I love California values, which we value people for who they are, and we accept ourselves, their expressions, and their family networks,” said Ward. “I think it’s great that we think very carefully about benefits for employees and employers like paid family leave, sick leave and others so that we have the flexibility that people can take care of their family members, and I think it’s great that this bill actually does both connect. It is important that we modernize this statue that we reflect particularly in the LGBTQ community, but others who do not have traditional, biological relatives, but a chosen family that was part of their life and was the same in every way this relationship structure. “

He called for the benefits to be provided to them in their need and combined the California values ​​that will help California families.

The CALChamber has already named the bill as one of its 2021 job killers bills, which would see the bill significantly expand several existing California vacation requirements that apply to employers five and older, including small employers with limited workers struggling as a result of the pandemic Allow an employee to designate a person to take vacation and expose the employer to costly litigation under the Fair Employment and Housing Act or Private Attorney General (PAGA) Act for alleged interference or disruption; Discouragement or denial.

LIGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1041 as introduced, Wicks. Leaving.

(1) Applicable law, commonly known as the California Family Rights Act, makes it an unlawful employment practice for any state employer or employer with 5 or more employees to refuse to submit a request from an employee with more than 12 months of service to the employer, who has worked at least 1,250 hours for the employer in the last 12 months or who fulfills certain other requirements in order to take a total of 12 working weeks over a period of 12 months in order, among other things, to establish a bond with a new child of the employee or for himself to care for yourself or a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner as specified.

This bill would add any other person who is blood related or whose close association with the employee is a family relationship to the population that an employee can take vacation to.

(2) Applicable law, the Healthy Workplaces and Families Act 2014, generally entitles an employee who works 30 days or more within a year for the same California employer to paid sick days, including the use of paid sick days for the diagnosis, care or treatment of an existing health condition or preventive care of an employee or a family member of an employee. Current law defines “family member” for this purpose as persons who have a prescribed relationship with the employee.

This bill would extend the definition of “family member” to include those who are related by blood or whose close association with the worker is a family relationship.

(3) According to the current unemployment benefit, employees must pay contribution rates based, among other things, on wages from employment and the payment of benefits, for payment into the unemployment benefit fund, a special fund of the state treasury. This fund will be used on an ongoing basis to provide disability benefits and to pay the costs of managing these reserves.

Applicable law provides for a temporary disability insurance program for families as part of the above-mentioned state disability insurance program, which is also known as the paid family vacation program and grants wage replacement benefits for up to 8 weeks to employees who work freely for prescribed purposes, also to care for a seriously ill family member . Applicable law defines terms for its purposes, including “family leave” and “family member”.

This bill would extend the entitlement to paid family leave benefits to those taking time off to care for a seriously ill person who is related by blood or whose close relationship with the worker is a family one. The bill would change the definitions of “family leave” and “family member” accordingly.

By approving expenditure from the Unemployment Benefit Fund for a new purpose, that bill would make a reallocation.