AB 2499: Employment: unlawful discrimination and paid sick days: victims of violence.

Existing law, subject to specified requirements for the employee, prohibits an employer from discharging or in any manner discriminating against an employee because of the employees status as a victim of crime or abuse or for taking time off for specified purposes. Those purposes include serving on a jury, and, if the employee is a victim of a crime, appearing in court as a witness in any judicial proceeding, and obtaining or attempting to obtain prescribed relief. Existing law requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodations for a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, who requests an accommodation for the safety of the victim while at work. Existing law requires reinstatement and reimbursement for discrimination or retaliation, as prescribed. Existing law makes an employer who willfully refuses to rehire, promote, or otherwise restore an employee or former employee who has been determined to be eligible for rehiring or promotion by a grievance procedure or hearing authorized by law guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law authorizes an employee who is discriminated or retaliated against because the employee has exercised these rights to file a complaint with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement of the Department of Industrial Relations. Existing law defines terms for these purposes.

Existing law, subject to specified requirements for the employee, also prohibits an employer with 25 or more employees from discharging, or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against, an employee who is a victim, for taking time off from work to seek medical attention for injuries caused by crime or abuse, to obtain certain services as a result of the crime or abuse or related to an experience of crime or abuse, or to participate in safety planning and take other actions to increase safety from future crime or abuse. Existing law requires reinstatement and reimbursement for discrimination or retaliation, as prescribed. Existing law makes an employer who willfully refuses to rehire, promote, or otherwise restore an employee or former employee who has been determined to be eligible for rehiring or promotion by a grievance procedure or hearing authorized by law guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law authorizes an employee who is discriminated or retaliated against because the employee has exercised these rights to file a complaint with the division. Existing law defines terms for these purposes.

Existing law requires an employer to inform each employee of the victim rights above in writing, to be provided upon hire and to other employees upon request. Existing law requires the Labor Commissioner to develop and post a form that an employer may use to comply, as prescribed.

This bill would revise and recast the jury, court, and victim time off provisions for employees as unlawful employment practices within the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and, thus, within the enforcement authority of the Civil Rights Department. The bill would refer to a qualifying act of violence, as defined, instead of crime, or crime or abuse. The bill would substantially revise existing definitions for its purposes, including defining victim as an individual against whom a qualifying act of violence is committed. The bill would prohibit an employer with 25 or more employees from discharging or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against an employee who is a victim or who has a family member who is a victim for taking time off work for any of a number of additional prescribed purposes relating to a qualifying act of violence. The bill would permit an employer to limit the total leave taken pursuant to these provisions, as specified, and require that the leave taken by an employee pursuant to these provisions run concurrently with leave taken pursuant to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 and the California Family Rights Act if the employee would have been eligible for that leave. The bill would expand the eligibility for reasonable accommodations to include an employee who is a victim or whose family member is a victim of a qualifying act of violence for the safety of the employee while at work. The bill would omit the reinstatement and reimbursement provisions included in existing law. The bill would require an employer to inform each employee of their rights under the bill, to be provided to new employees upon hire, to all employees annually, at any time upon request, and any time an employee informs an employer that the employee or the employees family member is a victim. The bill would require the department to develop and post, on or before July 1, 2025, a form, as prescribed, that an employer may use to comply with that requirement. The bill would make a number of conforming changes to implement these provisions.

Existing law, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, requires an employer to provide a specified employee who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking with paid sick days for the above-described purposes for which existing law prohibits an employer from discharging, or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against, the employee, as specified.

This bill would expand this paid sick leave requirement to include the additional purposes for which the bill would prohibit an employer from discharging, or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against, the employee, as specified.

This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 48205 of the Education Code proposed by AB 1884 and SB 1138 to be operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 246.5 of the Labor Code proposed by SB 1105 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1105 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.