tion requirements . To qualify for CFRA leave , employees must have worked for the employer for 12 months and 1,250 hours within the last 12 months .
The new CFRA also expands the qualifying reasons for leave . In addition to eligible employees being able to take leave to bond with a new child or care for themselves , a child , parent or spouse , they may also take leave to care for a sibling , grandparent , grandchild or domestic partner with a serious health condition .
The definition of child also has been modified to remove the requirement that one must be under 18 or an adult dependent child and includes the child of an employee ’ s domestic partner . Now an employee may also take leave to care for a domestic partner ’ s child or a child with a serious medical condition , regardless of the child ’ s age .
To align more closely to the FMLA , the new CFRA also adds military exigency as a qualifying reason for leave . Employers must provide leave related to the covered active duty of an employee ’ s spouse , domestic partner , child or parent in the armed forces .
Other changes also affect larger employers already subject to the CFRA . For instance , previously , parents who worked for the same employer could only take a combined total of 12 weeks of leave to bond with a new child . Now , each parent may take 12 weeks . Additionally , key employees ( defined as the highest paid 10 percent ) may no longer be denied reinstatement . All employees have the same reinstatement rights , regardless of their pay and responsibilities .
Case study No . 1
In most instances , the FMLA and the CFRA will run concurrently when taken for the same qualifying reason . However , because the new CFRA provides more reasons for leave than federal law , larger employers can expect to see certain instances where an employee separately has access to 12 weeks of the CFRA and 12 weeks of FMLA leave , which could result in 24 weeks of job-protected leave in any given year .
John ’ s grandmother is diagnosed with a serious health condition and is unable to care for herself . For two years , John has worked full-time for a company with 60 employees . He requests 12 weeks of leave to care for his grandmother . Within the same year , John ’ s child is also diagnosed with a serious health issue . John requests an additional 12 weeks of leave to care for his child .
Because grandparents are now covered under the CFRA ( but not the FMLA ), John would be eligible to take 12 weeks of CFRA leave to care for his grandmother . He would still be eligible to take 12 weeks of FMLA leave to care for his child . Under this unique dilemma , John ’ s employer could be faced with providing him 24 weeks , or about 5 1 / 2 months , of protected leave .
Case study No . 2
In addition , all CRFA-covered employers may have to provide up to seven months of job-protected leave to eligible pregnant employees .
Jamila ’ s employer has 14 employees . Jamila , who is pregnant , becomes disabled due to the pregnancy around her sixth month and cannot work . She would be entitled to up to four months of leave under California ’ s pregnancy disability leave law . After she has her
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