CA Requires Bereavement Leave, Expands Paid Sick Leave, CFRA Leave, and CalSavers

California has enacted legislation (Assembly Bill 1949) that will require employers with five or more employees to offer bereavement leave. Assembly Bill 1949 takes effect January 1, 2023.

The Details:

Eligible employees are entitled to use up to five days of bereavement leave upon the death of a family member. The days of bereavement leave need not be consecutive, but the leave must be completed within three months of the date of death of the family member.

Under the law, a family member is a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or parent-in-law as defined by these terms.

To be eligible for bereavement leave under the law, an employee must work for the employer for at least 30 days before the start of the leave.

Note: An employee’s right to bereavement leave is separate and distinct from any right under the California Family Rights Act.

Documentation:

An employer may request that an employee provide documentation of the death of the family member. If requested by the employer, the employee must provide the documentation within 30 days of the first day of the leave. Under the law, documentation includes, but isn’t limited to, a death certificate, a published obituary, or written verification of death, burial, or memorial services from a mortuary, funeral home, burial society, crematorium, religious institution, or governmental agency.

Confidentiality:

Employers must maintain the confidentiality of any employee requesting leave under the law. Any documentation provided to the employer must be maintained as confidential and must not be disclosed except to internal personnel or counsel, as necessary, or as required by law.

Pay During Leave:

Unless the employer has an existing paid bereavement leave policy, the leave provided under Assembly Bill 1949 may be unpaid, but employees are entitled to use accrued sick leave or other paid time off for this purpose.

If the employer has an existing paid bereavement leave policy, the employer must continue to offer the same number of days of paid bereavement if five or fewer. For example, if an employer’s existing policy calls for three days of paid bereavement leave:

The employer must continue to offer three days of paid leave.
The remaining two days of bereavement leave can be unpaid if the employee doesn’t elect to use accrued sick leave or other paid time off for this purpose.

Retaliation Prohibited:

Employers are prohibited from taking adverse action against an individual because:

They exercise the right to bereavement leave.
They give information or testimony as to their own bereavement leave, or another person’s bereavement leave, in an inquiry or proceeding related to rights guaranteed by the law.

Next Steps:

Review policies, forms and practices to ensure compliance with Assembly Bill 1949.
Train supervisors on the new law and how to handle leave requests.

Note: A bereavement leave policy for California employers has been added to HR411® in the Employee Handbook Wizard. See the Alerts section, found on the Employee Handbook Wizard home page, for more information.

California has enacted legislation (Senate Bill 1126) that requires employers with four or fewer employees to either register with CalSavers or offer a qualifying employer-sponsored retirement plan by December 31, 2025. Larger employers are already subject to the requirement.

The Details:

CalSavers is a state-based payroll withholding savings program using Roth (post-tax) individual retirement accounts.

By December 31, 2025, employers with four or fewer employees must either register with CalSavers or offer a qualifying employer-sponsored retirement plan. If employers choose the former, they must register using one of the following methods:

Via the program’s website (employer.CalSavers.com);
By phone (855-650-6916);
By overnight mail (CalSavers, 95 Wells Avenue, Suite 155, Newton, MA 02459); or
By regular mail (CalSavers, P.O. Box 55759, Boston, MA 02205-5759).

To register, an eligible employer must provide the following information:

Employer name, legal name and “doing business as” name, if applicable;
Federal Employer Identification Number or, if unavailable, the California Employer Payroll Tax Account Number;
Employer mailing address;
Employer physical address; and
Name, title, phone number and email address of an individual designated by the employer as the primary contact for the program.

Within 30 days of registration (or within 30 days of the date of hire for employees hired after registration), employers must provide the following information to the program for each eligible employee:

Full legal name;
Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number;
Date of birth;
Physical address;
Phone number, if available; and
Email address(es), if available.

Note: An employee is defined as an individual who has the status of an employee under the California Unemployment Insurance Code and who receives a W-2 with California wages. An eligible employee is an employee of an eligible employer who is at least 18 years of age.

Eligible employees are entitled to a CalSavers information packet. The program is responsible for distributing the packet to the employee and will do so within 10 days of receipt of the employee’s information.

Employers must remit to the program each employee’s contribution each payroll period.

Next Steps:

If you have four or fewer employees, either register with CalSavers or offer a qualifying employer-sponsored retirement plan by December 31, 2025.

Compliance Update