California Protected Leaves of Absence 
  1. California Family Rights Act: CFRA is modeled after FMLA and also requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide an employee up to 12 weeks of medical leave per calendar year to: 1) care for their own serious medical condition; 2) care for the serious medical condition of a family member, defined as a child, spouse or parent; or 3) to bond with a newborn or adopted child. Although CFRA and FMLA often overlap so that the two leaves run concurrently, there are significant differences where the two leaves do not run concurrently, which provide a California employee up to six months of protected leave. For example, any pregnancy-related disability is considered a “serious medical condition” under FMLA, but not CFRA. Accordingly, a pregnant employee in California can take 12 weeks of leave under FMLA for pregnancy-related conditions, and then an additional 12 weeks of protected leave under CFRA for bonding after the baby is born. Another deviation between FMLA and CFRA is leave to care for an injured military service member. If the service member is the son, daughter or spouse of the employee, then the employee’s leave under CFRA and FMLA would likely run concurrently. If the service member is the “next of kin,” however, only FMLA leave would be triggered, providing a California employee with up to 26 weeks of leave under FMLA and an additional 12 weeks of leave under CFRA.
  2. Pregnancy Disability Leave: This leave applies to employers with 5 or more employees and provides up to four months of protected leave. This leave runs concurrently with FMLA, but not CFRA. Therefore, an employee could take up to four months for pregnancy disability/FMLA leave, and still have another 12 weeks of protected leave under CFRA for bonding with a new child or to care for the employee’s/family members’ serious medical condition. Click here for more information about Pregnancy Disability Leave.
  3. Military Spouse Leave: This leave applies to employers with 25 or more employees and allows an employee to take up to 10 days to spend time with a military spouse who has been deployed in military conflict.
  4. Organ Donation Leave: This leave applies to employers with 15 or more employees and provides eligible employees with up to one month of paid protected leave in a year to donate an organ. This leave is explicitly excluded from running concurrently with FMLA or CFRA. 
  5.  Bone Marrow Leave: This leave applies to employers with 15 or more employees and provides eligible employees with up to one week of paid protected leave in a year to donate an organ. This leave is explicitly excluded from running concurrently with FMLA or CFRA.
  6. School Activities Leave: This leave applies to employers with 25 or more employees and provides eligible employees with up to 40 hours of leave per year to participate in school activities with their children. 
  7.  School Appearance Leave: This law applies to all employers and requires them to provide employees with time off in order to appear at school on a child’s behalf with regard to school suspension.
  8. Domestic Abuse/ Sexual Assault/Stalking Leave: This leave applies to any employer with 25 employees or more and requires an employer to provide an indefinite leave of absence to an employee who is seeking services or medical attention as a result of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
  9. Civil Air Patrol: This leave requires any employer with 10 or more employees to provide no less than 10 days per calendar year of unpaid leave for an employee who is responding to an emergency operational mission of the California Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. If it is only a single emergency operational mission, only three days of leave is required.
  10. Victims of Crime Leave: This leave applies to any employer and requires the employer to provide an indefinite amount of leave in order to attend judicial proceedings to an employee who is a victim of crime as defined in statute, or has an immediate family member who was a victim of crime.
  11. Volunteer Firefighting, Reserve Peace Officer, and Emergency Rescue Personnel Leave: This leave applies to employers with 50 or more employees and requires the employer to provide an employee who is a volunteer fire fighter, reserve peace officer, or emergency rescue personnel, with up to 14 days of leave per year to engage in fi re, law enforcement or emergency rescue training. 
  12. Voting Leave: This leave applies to all employers and requires employers to provide employees with as much time off as needed to vote. A maximum of two hours of time off to vote is paid. 
  13. Jury Duty/Witness Leave: This leave applies to all employers and requires employers to provide any employee called upon for jury duty or subpoenaed as a witness time off from work for the duration of the civil service on a jury or as a witness.
  14. Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA): FEHA requires all employers with 5 employees or more to reasonably accommodate employees who have a disability. A reasonable accommodation can and may include a leave of absence, the duration of which depends upon the employee’s disability.