Employment: leave.

(1) Existing law, commonly known as the California Family Rights Act, makes it an unlawful employment practice for a California public employer or an employer with 5 or more employees to refuse to grant a request from an employee who meets specified requirements to take up to a total of 12 workweeks in any 12-month period for family care and medical leave, as defined. This bill would expand the class of people for whom an employee may take leave to care for to include a designated person. The bill would define "designated person" to mean any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. The bill would authorize a designated person to be identified at the time the employee requests the leave. The bill would authorize an employer to limit an employee to one designated person per 12-month period. (2) Existing law, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, generally entitles an employee who works in California for the same employer for 30 or more days within a year to paid sick days, as specified, including the use of paid sick days for diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health condition of, or preventive care for, an employee or an employee's family member. Existing law defines "family member" for this purpose to include individuals who share a prescribed relationship with the employee. This bill would expand the definition of the term "family member" to include a designated person, which, for purposes of these provisions, would mean a person identified by the employee at the time the employee requests paid sick days, subject to limitation by the employer, as prescribed.