Employees: emergency rescue personnel.

Existing law prohibits an employer from discharging or in any manner discriminating against an employee for taking time off to perform emergency duty as a volunteer firefighter, reserve peace officer, or emergency rescue personnel. Existing law defines emergency rescue personnel to include an officer, employee, or member of a political subdivision of the state, or of a sheriff's department, police department, or a private fire department. Existing law further requires the employer to reinstate and reimburse an employee who is discharged or in any other manner discriminated against in his or her employment in violation of these provisions. Under existing law, any employer who willfully refuses to rehire, promote, or otherwise restore an employee, as specified, is guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law exempts a public safety agency or provider of emergency medical services from these provisions if, as determined by the employer, the employee's absence would hinder public safety or emergency medical services. This bill would require an employee who is a health care provider, as defined, to notify his or her employer at the time the employee becomes designated as emergency rescue personnel and when the employee is notified that he or she will be deployed as a result of that designation. This bill would expand the definition of emergency rescue personnel to include an officer, employee, or member of a disaster medical response entity sponsored or requested by the state. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.