Signed by Governor Gavin Newsom

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to concur with house amendments and pass a bill that increases state paid family leave benefits from 6 to 8 weeks.

Highlights:

• Establishes, within the state disability insurance program, a family temporary disability insurance program that provides up to 8 weeks of wage replacement benefits to workers taking time off to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or domestic partner, or to bond with a minor child within one year of the birth or placement of the child in connection with foster care or adoption, beginning July 1, 2020 (Sec. 39).

• Requires the family temporary disability program to provide up to 8 weeks of wage replacement benefits to, in addition to the aforementioned individuals, workers taking time off to participate in a qualifying exigency related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty of the individual’s spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent in the Armed Forces of the United States, beginning January 1, 2021 (Sec. 40).

• Requires the department to establish and maintain a tracking system to enable the collection of discrimination and harassment complaint data across state agencies (Sec. 5).

• Authorizes an eligible employee enrolled in the annual leave program to receive Nonindustrial Disability Insurance Family Care Leave benefits in an amount equal to one-half full pay, or 50 percent of gross salary, in lieu of sick leave or annual leave (Sec. 11).

• Extends Nonindustrial Disability Insurance Family Care Leave benefits to specified employees excluded from the definition of “state employee” and nonelected officers who elect to participate in the state annual leave program if they participate in the state annual leave program and are eligible to receive Nonindustrial Disability Insurance benefits that provide one-half full pay (Sec. 1 & 10).

• Requires the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, after appropriating funds for this purpose, to establish and maintain an outreach and education program for promoting awareness of, and compliance with, labor protections that affect the domestic work industry, and to promote fair and dignified labor standards in this industry and other low-wage industries (Sec. 33).

• Requires Cal-OSHA to submit to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board a rulemaking proposal to revise the lead standards of the general industry safety orders and construction safety orders, consistent with scientific research and findings (Sec. 34).

• Requires the board to vote on these proposed changes on or before September 30, 2020 (Sec. 34).

Full Bill Text