BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2340
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Date of Hearing: May 12, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2340 (Monning) - As Amended: May 6, 2010
Policy Committee: Labor and
Employment Vote: 4-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill gives employees in California the right to take three
days of unpaid leave in the event of the death of certain
relatives. Specifically, the bill:
1)Prohibits an employer from discharging, disciplining, or
discriminating against an employee for requesting or taking up
to three days of bereavement unpaid leave upon the death of a
spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or
domestic partner. The bereavement leave can be taken up to 13
months following the death, and need not be on consecutive
days.
2)Limits the right to bereavement leave to those who have been
employed by their present employer for at least 60 days.
3)Permits the employer to require documentation of the death
within 30 days of when the leave is taken.
4)Grants an employee the right to recover actual damages if he
or she is discriminated against for the exercise of
bereavement rights, and specifies that the employee may either
file a complaint with the Division of Labor Standards
Enforcement (DLSE) or bring a civil action in a court.
5)Exempts employees that are covered by collective bargaining
agreements, if the agreements provide for bereavement leave,
premium wages for overtime hours, and regular hourly pay of at
least 30% more than the minimum wage.
FISCAL EFFECT
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1)Minor impact on state government as an employer, to the extent
that bereavement leave for state employees would remain
subject to collective bargaining under the bill. According to
DPA, all state employees currently receive three days of paid
bereavement leave and may receive additional personal leave
days for various purposes.
2)Potential costs to some local government agencies, depending
on their existing leave policies. Not state reimbursable.
3)Unknown, probably minor costs to DLSE to review and
investigate potential retaliation complaints by employees
related to their exercise of bereavement leave rights (special
fund).
COMMENTS
1)Background . Existing law provides employees the opportunity to
take both paid and unpaid time away from work without fear of
discharge or discrimination for a number of specified
purposes, such as personal and family sick leave. Current
federal and state laws do not provide protected leave for
bereavement.
2)Rationale . Proponents indicate that everyone suffers the
often-devastating loss of a relative at some point during
their life, and that no one should have to choose between
their employment and grieving the loss of a loved one. They
assert that the bill provides an important right to California
employees, as well as protections to employers to ensure that
employees do not abuse the bereavement leave rights.
3)Opponents claim that that by making bereavement leave
mandatory in every situation, this bill removes flexibility
employers need to balance bereavement leave requests with
pressing leave requests by other employees for other reasons,
such as to care for a family member who is in trouble. They
contend that coordinating overlapping leave requests can be
especially challenging for small businesses with limited
staff.
In addition, several local public employers oppose the bill,
arguing that that the expansion of leave rights to temporary,
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part-time and seasonal employees who are not eligible for many
of the leave accruals and benefits offered to full-time
employees is not appropriate.
4)Related legislation . This bill is similar to SB 549 (Corbett)
from 2007, which provided up to four days of unpaid
bereavement leave. That bill was vetoed by the governor.
Analysis Prepared by : Brad Williams / APPR. / (916) 319-2081