BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 579|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 579
Author: Jackson (D), et al.
Amended: 7/16/15
Vote: 21
SENATE LABOR & IND. REL. COMMITTEE: 4-1, 4/22/15
AYES: Mendoza, Jackson, Leno, Mitchell
NOES: Stone
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR: 38-1, 6/4/15
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall,
Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson,
Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning,
Moorlach, Nguyen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Runner, Stone, Vidak,
Wieckowski, Wolk
NOES: Nielsen
NO VOTE RECORDED: Morrell
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 9/1/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Employees: time off
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill expands on the currently authorized reasons
for which an employee can take job-protected time off of work
without the fear of discrimination or discharge under the Family
School Partnership Act by allowing workers to take time off work
to 1) find, enroll, or reenroll his or her child in a school or
with a licensed child care provider, and 2) to address a child
care provider or school emergency, as defined. This bill also
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Page 2
revises provisions of the existing "kin care" law to be
consistent with the provisions under the paid sick days law to
clarify that "family member" includes the individuals already
covered in existing law and that the worker can take sick leave
for the reasons currently specified in law.
Assembly Amendments clarify under the "kin care" law that sick
leave can be taken for the reasons already specified under the
existing paid sick days law.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
Family School Partnership Act
1) 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 in activities of the school or licensed
child day care facility of any of his or her children.
(Labor Code §230.8)
2) Requires the employee, prior to taking the time off, to give
reasonable notice to the employer of the planned absence of
the employee.
3) Requires an employee to provide documentation regarding these
activities upon request by an employer.
4) Requires the employee to utilize existing vacation, personal
leave, or compensatory time off for purposes of the planned
absence. And 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
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exercise of this right.
Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014
6) Provides that 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
(to be taken after the 90th day of employment).
7) Allows employers to limit the use of paid sick days to 24
hours or three days per year.
8) Requires, upon the oral or written request of an employee, 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.
1) 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 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.
Kin Care law
2) 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
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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.
This bill:
1) Expands on the currently authorized reasons for which an
employee can take job-protected time off of work without the
fear of discrimination or discharge under the Family School
Partnership Act by allowing workers to take time off work to
a) find, enroll, or reenroll his or her child in a school or
with a licensed child care provider, and b) to address a
child care provider or school emergency, as defined.
2) Specifies that "child care provider or school emergency"
means that an employee's child cannot remain in a school or
with a child care provider due to one of the following:
a) The school or child care provider has requested that
the child be picked up, or has an attendance policy,
excluding planned holidays, that prohibits the child from
attending or requires the child to be picked up from the
school or child care provider.
b) Behavioral or discipline problems.
c) Closure or unexpected unavailability of the school or
child care provider, excluding planned holidays.
d) A natural disaster, including, but not limited to,
fire, earthquake, or flood.
3) Expands on the individuals authorized to take this time off
to include a stepparent, foster parent or person who stands
in loco parentis to a child.
4) Revises provisions of the existing "kin care" law to be
consistent with the provisions under the paid sick days law
to clarify that "family member" includes the individuals
already covered in existing law and that the worker can take
sick leave for the reasons currently specified in law.
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5) Prohibits an employer from denying sick leave or
discriminating against an employee for attending to an
illness or the preventive care of a family member.
Background
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 10 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.
Existing 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. Existing 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 bill 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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the
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Department of Industrial Relations indicates minor/absorbable
costs related to implementation and enforcement of this bill.
SUPPORT: (Verified9/1/15)
American Civil Liberties Union of California
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
California Applicants' Attorneys Association
California Conference Board of the Amalgamated Transit Union
California Conference of Machinists
California Employment Lawyers Association
California Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
California Partnership to End Domestic Violence
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
California School Employees Association
California Teachers Association
California Teamsters Public Affairs Council
California Women's Law Center
Child Care Law Center
Consumer Attorneys of California
County of Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors
Disability Rights California
Disability Rights Legal Center
Engineers & Scientists of California
Glendale City Employees Association
International Longshore & Warehouse Union
Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center
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
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OPPOSITION: (Verified9/1/15)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: 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 existing 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. This 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 this 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 this bill also benefits
employers by strengthening employee morale and job retention for
working parents.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 9/1/15
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AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo
Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove,
Hadley, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer,
Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Brough, Beth Gaines, Harper
Prepared by:Alma Perez / L. & I.R. / (916) 651-1556
9/1/15 21:12:34
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