California law mandates that employers with five or more employees provide eligible workers with five days of bereavement leave. This leave must be used within three months of a family member’s passing, with confidentiality and anti-discrimination protections in place.
By Brad Nakase, Attorney
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Bereavement leave in California is a complicated topic. Furthermore, bereavement is an extremely delicate subject. Careful and compassionate handling of this matter is essential for any employer.
Consequently, for the bereavement leave procedure to run smoothly, it is imperative that employers and HR managers stay abreast of any relevant policy and legal developments.
Learn about California’s bereavement leave policies, both historical and present, in this article. We’re here to address any concerns you may have regarding this kind of leave and related changes in California.
Many employees may wonder, “Is it possible to take time off for a family funeral?” While the FLSA does not mandate it, many employers do provide this type of leave. You may hear it referred to as compassionate leave, grievance leave, or bereavement leave.
The time spent grieving the loss of a loved one is known as bereavement. Feelings of loss are common during this time. In such a situation, workers often request time off to mourn at home with loved ones or alone. On top of that, after a death has occurred, employees may have a plethora of post-mortem responsibilities, such as making funeral preparations. Bereavement time off refers to the time that an employee takes off work to cope with such situations.
As a business owner, you should be prepared to help your employees through tough times.
There is a difference between “funeral leave” and “bereavement leave” in the eyes of some employers. The policy of the company will determine the precise wording. Workers can find out what rules they are subject to by consulting their employment contract or manual.
Most people take two or three days off for funerals. Employers expect workers to use this time to go to a funeral. Even if the deceased is not a member of the immediate family, some workers may be eligible to take funeral leave.
A typical amount of time off for bereavement is one or two weeks. Employees take this time off to grieve, attend funerals, or make other arrangements. Instead of providing employees with paid time off, some companies may insist that they use their accrued sick days, floating holidays, or personal vacation.
Legally speaking, funeral leave would be considered a form of bereavement leave.
There has been a long wait for California to institute bereavement leave. Legislation requiring time off for grieving first surfaced in 2007, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. Fifteen years later, most California employees will be able to take time off to grieve the loss of a loved one thanks to Assembly Bill 1949.
Senator Corbett had proposed a bill in 2007 that would have allowed all California workers to take four days off to grieve. Not only did Governor Schwarzenegger veto the measure, but he also vetoed another measure in 2010 that proposed three days of leave. In 2011, Governor Brown denied a measure that was very similar to this one.
There are bereavement leave laws in place in just a handful of states, with California being one of them. Certain states, including Oregon, Illinois, and Maryland, have enacted legislation that covers private businesses.
Employers in the private sector were not required to offer paid or unpaid leave for bereavement in California prior to AB 1949. They could use compensatory or accrued time off to take time off to grieve or make funeral arrangements. Companies were not required by law to provide bereavement leave, although some may have done so in their own policies.
There was a three-day paid bereavement leave policy in place for government workers. A death certificate or obituary was required as proof of bereavement leave for state employees in California. The employee would be eligible for two extra unpaid days off if the death occurred outside of the state.
After much struggle, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1949 into law at the tail end of September 2022, protecting bereavement leave. On January 1, 2023, the newly enacted law safeguards leave as provided for in the California Family Rights Act (CFRA).
Five days of bereavement leave will be granted to eligible employees of all public-sector employers and private-sector employers with five or more employees. Both employers and HR departments need to be aware of what employees need to qualify.
According to AB 1949, there are certain requirements:
Prior to the beginning of the leave, the employee must have been working for the company for a minimum of thirty days straight. The leave must be for a family member who meets the requirements. Domestic partners, children, grandchildren, parents-in-law, spouses, and parents are all examples of qualifying members. As long as the employee’s family member qualifies, there is no limit to the number of times they can take the leave.
The five days that eligible employees can take off can be spread out in any order. Nevertheless, the bereavement leave must be utilized no later than three months following the date of death.
How an employer chooses to handle paid or unpaid leave under AB 1949 is entirely up to them. Employers might ask for proof when an employee takes bereavement leave. Obituary articles, death certificates, memorial service paperwork, or other official confirmation of death could fall into this category. The employer has 30 days from the date of the leave to request documentation.
Under AB 1949, it is necessary to preserve the confidentiality of both employees and their documents.
Employers are prohibited from engaging in discriminatory practices, such as refusing to hire, firing, demoting, fining, suspending, or expelling, under AB 1949. This protection extends to individuals who exercise their right to bereavement leave or who testify in an inquiry or proceeding pertaining to rights guaranteed by AB 1949.
In the event that an employer does not already have a policy in place, the five days that are allowed and permitted by AB 1949 may go unpaid. But employees can choose to use their paid vacation time.
Employees will still receive paid time off from employers who have a paid policy in place. Any days that are still unpaid under AB 1949 will be considered part of the existing policy if it is less than five. But employees can use their vacation time to make up for the unpaid days.
If your company’s current policy does not provide for at least five days of paid leave for employees to grieve, you are required by AB 1949 to implement a five-day policy and can use your accrued vacation time to meet this requirement.
An employee is entitled to a minimum of five days of unpaid bereavement leave, even if their employer’s current leave policy covers less. However, they are allowed to use any paid leave they have accrued to cover the remaining days of unpaid leave.
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal statute that allows workers nationwide to take twelve weeks of unpaid leave. In order to qualify for FMLA, an employer must have more than 50 employees and the employee must have been with the company for at least one year. Employees who meet the requirements can use the leave time for:
Does the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) apply to bereavement leave? Right now, employees cannot use FMLA leave to go to a funeral or to make arrangements for a person who has died. While employees may be granted time off to care for a family member, this benefit is formally terminated once the loved one passes away.
Similar to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) grants twelve weeks of unpaid leave to employees. In addition, it states that workers are eligible for a maximum of six weeks of FTDI benefits per calendar year. Parents or family members of employees are eligible to use this time for medical emergencies or parental leave, just like with FMLA.
After setting up your bereavement policy, it’s important to have a way to handle requests for time off, manage paid time off (PTO), and track employee leave. In order to stay on the right side of federal and state regulations, employers must keep track of employees’ time off. The state of California already has some of the nation’s most extensive policies regarding paid and unpaid leave. California law mandates that businesses honor workers’ leave requests.
Employers may find it easier to keep track of various forms of leave, including accrued sick leave and parental leave, with the help of leave tracking software and PTO tracking software. Managers can set up different types of leave, and employees can choose the one that fits their situation. As a result, workers will have an easier time maintaining a steady workflow and balanced schedule.
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