Cal-Peculiarities: How California Employment Law is Different 2022 Edition

34 | 2022 Cal-Peculiarities ©2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP  www.seyfarth.com pay, providing employees with their full pay, up to the benefits cap established by the California EDD (as described below) . 52 Employees need 180 days of employment with the employer to be eligible for leave. Part-time or temporary employees, to be eligible, must spend at least 40% of their total weekly hours (and eight hours per workweek) for the employer within San Francisco’s geographic boundaries. Only those employees who apply for and receive PFL wage replacement for the purpose of bonding with a new child are eligible for SFPPLO pa y. 53 Employers may also mandate use of up to two weeks of accrued vacation before the supplemental pay is due, and these two weeks count toward the employer’s requirements to provide supplemental pay for a total of eight week s. 54 But if an employer combines vacation and sick into a single paid time off (PTO) bank, then the employer may apply only up to two weeks of accrued, unused PTO in excess of 72 hours. The 72 hours of PTO cannot be used to satisfy the employer’s Supplemental Compensation obligation, because of the intersection of provisions of the SFPPLO and the San Francisco Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (PSLO) . 55 E mployers also may require employees to obtain PFL benefits to be eligible for the supplemental pay . 56 Employees are entitled up to a maximum benefit set by formula . 57 E mployers need not provide SFPPLO pay that exceeds a state cap on income (for the purposes of PFL). The maximum weekly PFL pay for claims beginning on or after January 1, 2022 is 60% or 70%, with a maximum payment of $1,540 . 58 S FPPLO requires employers to supplement the remainder of an employee’s compensation, up to a cap of $2,567 per week for 2022 . 59 C hanges in the percentage of income replacement by PFL and the state income cap will affect the supplemental amount that San Francisco employers must pay. 2.5 Accommodation of Addicts and Individuals Who Cannot Read Employers of 25 or more employees must provide a “reasonable accommodation” (e.g., an unpaid leave) for employees who wish to participate in alcohol or drug rehabilitation programs or adult literacy programs , 60 a nd must take reasonable steps to safeguard the privacy of the employee who has enrolled in a rehabilitation progra m. 61 2.6 Time Off for Court Appearances (Jury Duty, Witness Leave, etc.) California employers must grant unpaid leave to, and must not discriminate against, employees who (1) are summoned for jury duty or for a court appearance as a witness, (2) appear in court to seek relief as a victim of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault, or (3) are victims of certain felonies or are closely related to such victims . 62 G enerally a condition of leave is giving reasonable notice to the employer. 2.6.1 Jury duty California law does not prohibit an employer from requiring that employees on jury duty report to work when not called to serve on a jury. A lthough employers who provide paid jury duty typically limit the pay to two weeks, both federal and California law generally require, as a condition of exempt status, that exempt employees receive a salary of a fixed amount per week regardless of the amount worked that week, so that a partial-week jury leave may amount, as a practical matter, to fully paid leave for exempt employees. 2.6.2 Victim-related court appearances California employers must not discharge, discriminate, or retaliate against an employee who takes time off, after giving reasonable advance notice (where feasible), to appear at any proceeding involving the right of a victim of any of certain crime s. 63 The law specifies that the information needed to certify the absence can include a police