Gary McLaughlin Quoted in SHRM on Impact of Expanded California Family Rights Act

SHRM has quoted Akin Gump labor and employment partner Gary McLaughlin in the article “California Employers Must Prepare for CFRA Leave Expansion,” which reports on an expansion of the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) that takes effect on January 1, 2021.

Currently, the article says, California businesses with 50 or more employees must provide eligible workers with up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave under both the CFRA and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. When the revised law takes effect, the CFRA will cover all employers with at least five workers. Additionally, the law eliminates the requirement that eligible employees work at a location where the employer has 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius.

According to McLaughlin, “employers with a large number of employees overall but were not previously covered because the number of employees in California was small, or they were not concentrated around a single worksite, could now be covered where they had not been before.”

One other component of the law, the article says, is that it will cover leave to care for more family members, such as grandparents, grandchildren and siblings. McLaughlin says this means it is not just small employers that will be affected. He also noted that employers that were already covered by the CFRA should consider whether any additional employees in the state will become eligible for leave due to the elimination of the 75-mile-radius requirement. “This could include, for example, small groups of employees who work at remote locations in the state,” he said.