Friday, Apr 1, 2016

Pregnancy disability poster changes effective immediately

Effective April 1, 2016 employers are required to post two new workplace notices as part of their responsibilities under both amended regulations of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and California Family Rights Act (CFRA).

Employers with five or more full-time or part-time employees are required to provide a copy of the new "Your Rights and Obligations as a Pregnant Employee" notice to an employee requesting pregnancy disability leave (PDL) as well as display the notice in a conspicuous place where employees tend to congregate. This notice replaces DFEH "Notice A."

In addition to minor verbiage changes, the new notice explains:

• Protection from discrimination because of pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions.
• An employee's right to request reasonable accommodation, transfer or pregnancy disability leave.
• Employees are entitled to up to four months of PDL per pregnancy, not per year.
• An employee's obligations to provide adequate advance notice.
• Additional CFRA leave benefits.
• The employer's requirement, if any, that the employee provide medical certification of the need for pregnancy disability leave, reasonable accommodation or transfer.

Employers with 50 or more full-time or part-time employees are required to display a copy of the new "Family Care and Medical Leave (CFRA Leave) and Pregnancy Disability Leave" notice. This notice replaces DFEH "Notice B." The revised regulations clarify previous regulations and more closely align CFRA with the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

The changes to the CFRA leave notice explain:

• Eligibility requirements for CFRA and use of accrued paid leave.
• Eligibility for CFRA and/or pregnancy disability leave and the right to reinstatement.
• Providing reasonable notice of the need for leave.
• Health care provider certification and intermittent or reduced schedule leave.
• Substitution of accrued paid leave for unpaid CFRA leave.
• Duration of leave.

Should the employer's workforce contain employees who speak another language other than English, the employer must translate the policy into every language spoken by at least 10 percent of the workforce.

Employers are also required to have pregnancy disability leave and California Family Leave Act policies. As with any changes to practice employment policies, employees should be notified and employers should distribute and post a copy of the updated policy and obtain signed acknowledgment of receipt to keep in employee personnel files.

CDA Practice support has an Acknowledgment of New or Revised Policy template available.

Updated PDL/CFRA policy language is available in the Sample Employee Manual template.

Going forward

Existing "Notice A" and "Notice B" posters have been eliminated and replaced by the following two new notices and employers should update employee PDL and CFRA policies in their employee manuals.

"Your Rights and Obligations as a Pregnant Employee" notice (DFEH-100-20) replaces "Notice A" and addresses pregnancy disability leave as well as California Family Rights Act (CFRA). (updated April 2016).

Employers with 50 or more employees will need to replace "Notice B" with: "Family Care and Medical Leave (CFRA Leave) and Pregnancy Disability Leave" notice (DFEH-100-21). (updated July 2015).

Employers should review and update their pregnancy disability leave (5+ employees) and California Family Leave Act (50+ employees) policies.

It is important to note that while employers need to comply with the April 1 date, penalties will not be assessed if employers have not replaced Notice A with this notice by April 1.

source: www.cda.org