Sen. Scott Surovell

Requires the Virginia Employment Commission to establish and administer a paid family and medical leave program. Under the program, benefits are paid to eligible employees for family and medical leave. Funding for the program is provided through premiums assessed to employers and employees. The amount of a benefit is 70 percent of the employee's average weekly wage, not to exceed $850 per week, which amount is required to be adjusted annually to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. The measure caps the duration of paid leave at 12 weeks in any 52-week period, though 26 weeks of paid leave may be taken if the leave qualifies as military caregiver leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. Employers with 25 or fewer employees are exempt from paying their contribution to the program but may elect to participate voluntarily. Self-employed individuals are provided the option of participating in the program. The measure also provides that employers may operate their own equivalent voluntary plans.

Provides that when a landlord as plaintiff requests that an initial hearing on a summons for unlawful detainer be set on a date later than 21 days from the filing of such summons, the initial hearing shall not be set on a date later than 30 days after the date of the filing. The bill further provides that an order of possession for the premises in an unlawful detainer action shall not be entered unless the landlord or the landlord's attorney or agent has presented a copy of a proper termination notice that the court admits into evidence. The bill allows a landlord to amend the amount alleged to be due and owing in an unlawful detainer action to request all amounts due and owing as of the date of a hearing on the action and to further amend such an amount to include additional amounts that become due and owing prior to the final disposition of a pending unlawful detainer action. The bill prohibits a landlord from filing a subsequent and additional unlawful detainer summons for such additional amounts. The bill also (i) requires a landlord to offer the tenant a written rental agreement and sets forth terms and conditions that will be applicable by operation of law if the landlord does not offer a written rental agreement; (ii) provides that a tenant is entitled to reasonable attorney fees when an action brought by a landlord to enforce the terms of a rental agreement is dismissed at the request of the tenant or tenant's attorney or judgment is entered in favor of the tenant; (iii) extends the "pay or quit" provision from five days to 14 days; (iv) prohibits a landlord from terminating a rental agreement solely because a tenant owes fees due to late payment of rent, provided that such tenant is current on all rental payments; and (iv) extends the amount of time that a tenant may have an unlawful detainer dismissed to two days before a writ of eviction is delivered to be executed if the tenant pays all amounts claimed on the summons in unlawful detainer to the landlord, the landlord's attorney, or the court.

Adds cancers of the colon, brain, or testes to the list of cancers that are presumed to be an occupational disease covered by the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act when firefighters and certain employees develop the cancer. The measure removes the compensability requirement that the employee who develops cancer had contact with a toxic substance encountered in the line of duty. The bill was incorporated into