California Family Rights Act (CFRA) is essentially the state law version of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which many employees are more familiar with. However, the state law version, CFRA, has generally always provided slightly more protections and has added to that for 2021. The primary purpose of both FMLA and CFRA is to provide employees a protected leave of up to 12 unpaid workweeks off in any 12-month period for family care and medical leave without getting retaliated against or terminated for taking time off. The leave can be used for reasons such as to care for a relative with a serious health condition or an employee’s own serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform job duties.
Beginning January 1, 2021, the eligibility for CFRA leave expanded substantially. Now an employee is eligible or covered if: 1.) the employer has five or more employees anywhere in the United States or its territories; 2.) the employee was employed by the employer for a period of at least 12 months; and 3.) the employee worked for at least 1250 hours for the employer in the most recent 12 month period of employment immediately preceding the start of the leave.
Before the year 2021, the first prong for CFRA was less inclusive because an employee had to be employed at a worksite where the employer employed at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius. That was a much higher threshold and remains the minimum number of employees an employer must have under the less inclusive FMLA. Fortunately, the CFRA’s new lower five employee threshold provides additional protection for previously excluded employees if they need time off to address their health and the health of loved ones.
(See Link(s): Government Code Section 12945.2)