BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Senator Tony Mendoza, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 579 Hearing Date: April 22,
2015
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|Author: |Jackson |
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|Version: |April 15, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Alma Perez-Schwab |
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Subject: Employees: time off
KEY ISSUES
Should employees be able to take time off of work (whether paid
or unpaid) without fear of discrimination or discharge to find,
enroll, or reenroll his or her child in a school licensed day
care facility?
Should employees be able to use their accrued and available paid
sick leave to address child care or school emergencies that may
include behavioral or discipline problems with the child, or
disasters such as a fire or an earthquake?
ANALYSIS
Existing law, commonly referred to as the Family School
Partnership Act, prohibits an employer who employs 25 or more
employees working at the same location from discharging or
discriminating against an employee who is a parent, guardian, or
grandparent having custody of a child in a licensed child day
care facility or in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive,
for taking up to 40 hours each year of time off (not exceeding
eight hours in any calendar month of the year), to participate
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in activities of the school or licensed child day care facility
of any of his or her children. (Labor Code §230.8)
Among other things, existing law:
1) Requires the employee, prior to taking the time off, to
give reasonable notice to the employer of the planned
absence of the employee.
2) Requires an employee to provide documentation regarding
these activities upon request by an employer.
3) Requires the employee to utilize existing vacation,
personal leave, or compensatory time off for purposes of
the planned absence.
4) Also authorizes the employee to utilize time off without
pay for this purpose, to the extent available by his/her
employer.
5) Provides remedies to employees discharged, demoted, or
in any other manner discriminated against as a result of
his/her exercise of this right.
Under the existing Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of
2014 , starting on July 1, 2015, an employee who works in
California for 30 or more days within a year from the
commencement of employment is entitled to paid sick days at the
rate of not less than one hour per every 30 hours worked.
Among other things, the Act (Labor Code §245-249):
1. Authorizes the use accrued paid sick days beginning on
the 90th day of employment.
2. Allows employers to limit the use of paid sick days to
24 hours or three days per year.
3. Upon the oral or written request of an employee,
requires an employer to provide paid sick days for:
a. Diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing
health condition of, or preventive care for, the
employee or the employee's family member (defined as a
child, parent, spouse, registered domestic partner,
grandparent, grandchild and sibling).
b. For specified purposes, as defined, for an
employee who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual
assault, or stalking.
4. Prohibits an employer from denying an employee the right
to use accrued sick days, discharge, threaten to discharge,
demote, suspend, or in any manner discriminate against an
employee for using accrued sick days, attempting to
exercise the right to use accrued sick days, filing a
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complaint with the department or alleging a violation of
this article, cooperating in an investigation or
prosecution of an alleged violation of this article, or
opposing any policy or practice or act that is prohibited
by this article.
Existing law, commonly referred to as the Kin Care law, also
requires an employer to permit an employee to use the employee's
accrued and available sick leave entitlement to attend to the
illness of a child, parent, spouse, or domestic partner of the
employee and prohibits an employer from denying an employee the
right to use sick leave or taking specific discriminatory action
against an employee for using, or attempting to exercise the
right to use, sick leave to attend to such an illness. (Labor
Code §233)
This Bill would expand on the currently authorized reasons for
which an employee can take job-protected time off of work
without the fear of discrimination or discharge.
Specifically, this bill would:
1) Authorize employees to take time off [whether unpaid or
paid using vacation or other compensated leave] to find,
enroll, or reenroll his or her child in a school or a
licensed day care facility.
2) Authorize employees to use paid sick days to address a
child care or school emergency.
3) Define "child care or school emergency" to mean that an
employee's child cannot remain in a school or child care
facility due to one of the following:
o Illness of, or injury to, the child.
o Behavioral or discipline problems.
o Closure of the facility.
o A disaster or extreme weather condition,
including, but not limited to, fire, earthquake, or
flood.
1) Align Kin Care law with the provisions in the new Paid
Sick Days law that authorizes the use of sick leave to
attend to any preventative care needs of the worker's
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child, parent, spouse, or domestic partner.
COMMENTS
1. Need for this bill?
According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research,
parents who used paid sick days were much less likely than
other workers to use it for their own health, with more than
half taking time to care for their children. Mothers were
particularly likely to use paid sick days to care for their
children and particularly unlikely to use it for their own
health needs. Additionally, the study found that one in ten
parents reported using paid sick days to care for both a child
and an older relative. (IWPR, "San Francisco's Paid Sick Leave
Ordinance: Outcomes for Employers and Employees," February
2011) The Institute for Women's Policy Research concluded that
these findings suggest that many employees make trade-offs
when using paid sick days and tend to use this time to care
for others, perhaps using less time for their own health
needs.
Current law allows workers the ability to take time off to
participate in activities of the school or licensed child day
care facility of his/her child; however, this time must be
either unpaid or taken using a vacation, personal leave, or
compensatory time off. Current law allows workers to use,
beginning in July of this year, paid sick days for the
diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health condition
of, or preventive care for, the employee or the employee's
family member (defined as a child, parent, spouse, registered
domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild and sibling).
However, the author and proponents of this measure believe
that more flexibility is needed in the use of both the time
off to attend to child care or school activities and the new
paid sick day's law.
This bill would accomplish this flexibility by 1) allowing
workers to use their paid sick days to care for a child during
a child care or school emergency [which may include behavioral
or discipline problems with a child, closure of the facility,
a disaster or extreme weather condition]; and 2) allowing
workers to take job-protected time off from work to find child
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care or school for their children and to enroll them.
2. Proponent Arguments :
According to the author, most children live in households
where all parents work, and one-third of families with
children are headed by single parents. Yet, many parents risk
losing their jobs when they face a child care emergency; or,
cannot have time off to engage in child care or school
selection. The author argues that current law does not provide
sufficient protections leading to parents being forced to
choose between their job and whether to enroll/provide for the
welfare and education of their child. SB 579 allows parents
to use their paid sick days to care for a child during a child
care or school emergency, and to take job-protected time off
from work to find (and enroll) child care or school for their
children. The bill also amends the Kin Care law to more
closely align with the Healthy Workplaces Healthy Families Act
by allowing parents to use their sick days to take their
family members to a preventative health appointment. The
author argues that the bill does not increase the amount of
time off parents are entitled to under these laws, but rather
expands the permitted use of those laws to cover child care
emergencies and enrollment.
Proponents argue that parents need assurance they will not
lose their job when they must leave work to attend to the
well-being of their child. They believe that by allowing
working parents to take time-off for these important reasons,
the Legislature will strengthen its support for working
mothers and fathers by helping them keep their jobs while
fulfilling their parental obligations. Proponents argue that
the bill also benefits employers by strengthening employee
morale and job retention for working parents.
3. Opponent Arguments :
According to opponents, this bill would expand the paid sick
leave law, which has yet to go into effect, to also cover
events that have no relation to an employee's illness, or
preventative care, or the illness or preventative care of a
family member. Specifically, this bill expands the conditions
under which an employee can utilize paid sick leave to include
"child care or school emergency," defined as discipline or
behavioral problems, closure of the facility, a disaster, or
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extreme weather conditions. Opponents argue that these listed
events are completely unrelated to medical care or an illness
of an employee or their family member, and is inconsistent
with the intent of the paid sick leave law, which was to
provide employees with an opportunity to attend to their
health needs and the health needs of their family.
Furthermore, opponents argue that utilizing paid sick leave
for conditions and events that are completely unrelated to
illness or medical care, begins to change the nature of the
leave to resemble paid time off or vacation leave, which is a
significant concern to the business community. Unused accrued
paid time off and vacation as opposed to unused, accrued paid
sick leave are considered wages that are due at the time of
separation, given the ability for an employee to utilize that
leave for events other than limited purposes. Moreover, they
argue, California already provides employees with 40 hours of
protected school activities leave, for a parent, guardian, or
grandparent of a child, to participate in "school activities."
This includes children at licensed child day care facilities,
and would likely include several of the events this bill seeks
to include under the paid sick leave law.
4. Prior Legislation :
AB 1522 (Gonzalez) of 2014: Chaptered
AB 1522 enacted the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act
of 2014 (discussed above) which requires employers to provide
paid sick days to employees who work 30 or more days within a
year from commencement of employment.
SUPPORT
Child Care Law Center (Co-Sponsor)
Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center (Co-Sponsor)
California Applicants' Attorneys Association
California Employment Lawyers Association
California Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
California Conference Board of the Amalgamated Transit Union
California Conference of Machinists
California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
California Partnership to End Domestic Violence
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
California School Employees Association
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California Teamsters Public Affairs Council
California Women's Law Center
Consumer Attorneys of California
County of Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors
Disability Rights Legal Center
Engineers & Scientists of California
Glendale City Employees Association
International Longshore & Warehouse Union
National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter
National Council of Jewish Women California
Organization of SMUD Employees
Professional & Technical Engineers
Roots of Change
San Bernardino Public Employees Association
San Diego County Court Employees Association
San Francisco Breastfeeding Promotion Coalition
San Luis Obispo County Employees Association
UNITE HERE, AFL-CIO
Utility Workers Union of America
OPPOSITION
California Chamber of Commerce
California Association for Health Services at Home
California League of Food Processors
California Manufacturers and Technology Association
California Professional Association of Specialty Contractors
California Restaurant Association
California State Association of Counties
National Federation of Independent Business
Western Growers Association
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