The Governor of California recently signed SB848 which amends the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and requires certain employers to provide employees with 5 days of reproductive loss leave.

Under this law, California employees who have worked for 30 days or more for an employer employing 5 or more employees may take reproductive loss leave for the following reasons (defined in the statute as a reproductive loss event).

Failed adoption;
Failed surrogacy;
Miscarriage;
Stillbirth; or
Unsuccessful assisted reproduction

Employees may take this leave consecutively or nonconsecutively. If they have more than one reproductive loss event within a 12-month period, they are limited to taking 20 days of such leave.

Employees must take the reproductive loss leave within 3 months of the reproductive loss event OR within 3 months after taking leave (for the same event) under other federal or state leave laws. That means, an employee may, for example, be able to first take pregnancy disability leave or leave under the family rights act and then, take reproductive loss leave.

The reproductive loss leave is unpaid unless the employer has a policy stating otherwise. But, the employee may use vacation, personal leave, accrued and available sick leave or compensatory time off while using this leave.

Employers may not retaliate against any employee due to their exercise of their right to take reproductive loss leave or for giving any information or testimony relating to the leave.

Also, even though there is no requirement for an employee to provide documentation or a certification to support this leave, employers must keep confidential any information employees provide in order to take reproductive loss leave.

The effective date of this new law is January 1, 2024. That means employers subject to this law have time to amend their policies and handbooks and to train supervisors.

Reliance Matrix Can Help!

Reliance Matrix offers employers federal and state leave administration services, including managing reproductive loss and similar types of state leave laws. For more information, contact your Reliance Matrix account manager or send us a message to AbsenceMentor@rsli.com.