BILL ANALYSIS
AB 485
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 27, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Mike Feuer, Chair
AB 485 (Carter) - As Amended: April 13, 2009
SUBJECT : CIVIL AIR PATROL: CALIFORNIA WING: EMPLOYMENT LEAVE
KEY ISSUE : SHOULD EMPLOYERS PROVIDE UNPAID LEAVE AND OTHER JOB
SECURITY PROTECTIONS, AS SPECIFIED, FOR THEIR EMPLOYEES WHO ARE
VOLUNTEER MEMBERS OF THE CALIFORNIA WING OF THE CIVIL AIR PATROL
WHEN THEY RESPOND TO AN AUTHORIZED EMERGENCY OPERATIONAL
MISSION?
FISCAL EFFECT : As currently in print this bill is keyed fiscal.
SYNOPSIS
The Civil Air Patrol (CAP), the official civilian auxiliary of
the U.S. Air Force, is an all-volunteer organization that
performs more than 90% of search and rescue missions for general
aviation aircraft in the nation, and also provides emergency
response support for disasters like earthquakes, fires, and
floods. The California Wing of the Civil Air Patrol is made up
of more than 3,000 volunteer members who, unlike most members of
the armed forces, do not receive salaries or stipends for their
service to the state and nation. Supporters of this
non-controversial bill argue that new law is needed to establish
a right to unpaid employment leave and job security for
volunteer members of the California Wing when members respond to
an authorized emergency operational mission. They reasonably
contend that volunteer CAP members should not be at risk of
losing their jobs when they miss work because they are away
serving the public in their Air Patrol capacity. There is no
known opposition to the bill and the bill recently passed the
Labor and Employment Committee by unanimous vote.
SUMMARY : Establishes a right to unpaid employment leave and
other job protections for a volunteer member of the California
Wing of the Civil Air Patrol when the member responds to an
authorized emergency operational mission. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Provides that an employer with more than 15 employees shall
not discriminate against or discharge a member of the Civil
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Air Patrol (CAP) due to the employee's membership in CAP and
shall not hinder or prevent a member from performing service
as part of the California Wing of CAP during an emergency
operational mission.
2)Requires an employer with more than 15 employees to provide
not less than 15 days per calendar year of unpaid leave to an
employee responding to an emergency operational mission of the
California Wing of CAP, as specified.
3)Defines an "employee" as a person who has been employed by the
employer for at least a 90-day period immediately preceding
the commencement of leave.
4)Requires an employee to give the employer as much notice as
possible of the intended date upon which the CAP leave will
begin and end.
5)Authorizes an employer to require certification from the
proper CAP authority to verify employee eligibility for leave,
and provides that the employer may deny the leave to be taken
as CAP leave if the employee fails to provide the required
certification.
6)Specifies that an employee taking leave shall not be required
to exhaust accrued vacation leave, personal leave,
compensatory leave, sick leave, disability leave or other
leave.
7)Provides that nothing in this act prevents an employer from
providing paid leave to the employee for taking such leave.
8)Requires an employer to restore an employee to the position he
or she held when the leave began, or to a position with
equivalent seniority status, employee benefits, pay and other
terms and conditions of employment. However, an employer may
decline to restore an employee because of conditions unrelated
to their exercise of rights under this bill.
9)Prohibits an employer from interfering with, retraining or
denying the exercise of rights under this bill.
10)Authorizes an employee to bring a civil action in the
appropriate state court of appeal to enforce these provisions,
and allows the court to enjoin any act or practice that
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violates this act and to order equitable relief necessary to
enforce these provisions.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Existing federal law, the Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), prohibits an employer from
denying any benefit of employment on the basis of an
individual's membership, application for membership,
performance of service, application for service, or obligation
for service in the uniformed services. USERRA also requires
that employers rehire a veteran, reservist, or National Guard
member after being absent due to military service or training,
assuming the absence has been less than five years and the
employee notified the employer either verbally or in writing
of the upcoming deployment. (38 U.S.C. 4301 - 4335.)
2)Existing federal law, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA),
requires all employers with 50 or more employees within a 75
mile radius to grant 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month
period to any employee who is eligible. An employee may take
this leave for the purposes of child birth, care of a newly
adopted child or newly placed foster child, and care for the
serious health condition of the employee, the employee's
spouse or registered domestic partner, or the employee's child
or parent. With certain exceptions, the employee taking the
leave must be reinstated. (29 USC 2601 et seq.; 29 CFR Part
825.)
3)Existing federal law, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA),
was amended in 2008 to provide "military family leave
entitlements" that allow eligible employees to take:
a) Up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave for any
"qualifying exigency" arising out of the active duty or
call to active duty status of a spouse, son, daughter or
parent; and
b) Up to 26 weeks of job-protected leave to care for a
covered service member with a serious injury or illness.
(29 USC 2601 et seq.; 29 CFR Part 825)
4)Existing state law, the California Family Rights Act (CFRA),
provides many of the same employment leave protections that
are in the federal FMLA, but in some situations provides job
protection not provided by California paid family leave laws.
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(Gov. Code Section 12945.2.)
5)Existing state law prohibits discrimination against members of
the military or naval forces of the state or of the United
States based on that membership, and prohibits employers from
discharging any person from employment because of the
performance or ordered military duty or training, or by reason
of being a member of the military or naval forces of this
state. (Military and Veterans Code Sections 394 and 395).
6)Existing state law provides that state employees called into
service by the Office of Emergency Services, including
volunteers members of the California Wing of the Civil Air
Patrol, are entitled to up to 10 calendar days per fiscal year
of administrative time off from their appointing power.
(Government Code Section 19844.5.)
7)Existing law in nine other states establishes a similar right
to employment leave and other job protections for CAP members
in those states responding to emergency operational missions.
COMMENTS : This non-controversial bill would establish a right
to unpaid employment leave and other job protections for
volunteer members of the California Wing of the Civil Air Patrol
when they respond to an authorized emergency operational mission
that takes them away from the workplace for the length of the
mission.
CAP Members are Unpaid Volunteers Who Need Job Protections to
Continue Their Public Service. The Civil Air Patrol, the
official civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is an
all-volunteer organization with 57,000 members nationwide. CAP
performs more than 90% of search and rescue missions for general
aviation aircraft in the nation, and also provides support
during emergency situations including earthquakes, fires,
floods, and searches for missing persons. According to the
author, the California Wing of the Civil Air Patrol is made up
of more than 3,000 volunteer members who, unlike most members of
the armed forces, do not receive salaries or stipends for their
service to the state and nation.
The author explains the need for this bill, stating:
When these members are called upon to serve in an
emergency mission, there is no law to ensure that
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their jobs will remain after the mission is
complete. With the current economy, we may lose our
brave Civil Air Patrol members because they cannot
afford to lose their day jobs.
Under existing state law, CAP members who are employed by the
state are entitled to up to ten days per year of administrative
time off from their regular employment to respond to emergency
operational missions conducted by the Civil Air Patrol.
Administrative time off does not include the kind of employment
protections that are associated with many forms of official
leave (e.g. sick leave, family leave, medical leave, etc.) that
the state recognizes. Furthermore, private employers have no
obligation to provide even administrative time off to their
employees who are CAP members. To remedy this situation, this
bill seeks to establish a specialized form of leave for CAP
members that will enable them to serve the public in their
emergency response capacity without jeopardizing their regular
employment, be it public or private.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Wing of the Civil Air Patrol (sponsor)
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334